News October 2011

5 Things Every Shelter Should do During an Intake Exam
$20,000 Could Be Yours
Grant Will Help Neuter 5,000 Animals
Are You Giving Cats the Workout of Their Lives?

5 Things Every Shelter Should do During an Intake Exam

From the moment an animal arrives at your shelter, you have the opportunity to provide care and make choices that could not only save that animal's life but the lives of other animals — even human lives — as well.

ASPCApro has compiled information on life-saving steps that every shelter can take when admitting animals to their facility. We've also included plenty of resources, sample forms, and reference documents that show you how to follow through on our recommendations. These recommendations are a baseline for a humane standard of care. In fact, they are consistent with the Association of Shelter Veterinarians Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters.

The first step to a healthy shelter is to perform an intake exam that includes these five critical steps:

1. Perform a basic but thorough physical exam.
2. Accurately describe the animal's gender status and physical appearance.
3. Identify signs of infectious disease.
4. Recognize medical emergencies, including whether the animal is in pain.
5. Document your findings, both normal and abnormal.

Incorporating a thorough intake exam into your operations now can make an immediate difference for both animals and staff. Learn how to perform an intake exam by watching a step-by-step slideshow.

$20,000 Could Be Yours

Subaru's 4th annual Share the Love campaign helps shelters save lives and maybe even earn some big bucks. Conduct a year-end event in collaboration with your local Subaru dealer and you'll be eligible to win up to $20,000! We'll also award one $5,000-first place prize and five $2,000-second place prizes.

In order to be eligible to enter the contest, your event must be hosted in conjunction with a Subaru dealer and take place between November 19, 2011 and January 3, 2012. We'll be looking for events that are a big hit — where many animals are adopted (either during or shortly after the event) and big donations of food and cash are collected.

Watch this short Sample Event Ideas tutorial to see a Shelter-Subaru collaboration in action and download our dealer-event planning guide. Need assistance? Contact Rebecca Frommer at subarusharethelove@aspca.org or 212-876-7700 x4684.

Let the year-end event planning begin!

Grant Will Help Neuter 5,000 Animals

The Rescue Ranch, Inc. in McRae, GA, opened a long-awaited and much needed high-quality, high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter clinic in June with the help of a $10,000 grant from the ASPCA. The new Zerner-Stone Clinic provides service to 50 underserved and largely low-income counties in central Georgia. In addition, the clinic handles the state program for Spay USA. While open to everyone regardless of need, Rescue Ranch targets areas with repeat offenders and low income caregivers. Animals living in trailer parks and pets of migrant workers are also a focus. Rescue Ranch collaborates with local humane organizations to take in puppies and kittens while they alter the adults. They do hoarder intervention and operate a food assistance program. Transportation is provided as needed. Their goal is 5,000 surgeries a year.

ASPCA grantmakers were impressed with how much the energetic Rescue Ranch leadership had accomplished on their own. Before applying for the ASPCA grant to purchase equipment, they had obtained a donated building and land as well as raised $30,000 for renovations.

Rescue Ranch founder and president Barbara Bruigom reports that the response to the new clinic has been "wonderful" and feedback from clients and the community has been "fantastic." She tells of one client who brought in three kittens shortly after opening and began crying when she first laid eyes on the completed facility because "she never thought this could be a reality in our grassroots area." That client immediately became a volunteer and, according to Bruigom is "a perfect example of how lives are changed by this."

Learn about the ASPCA Grants Program.

Are You Giving Cats the Workout of Their Lives?

There are mountains of research demonstrating the stress-buffering, psychological boost from exercise that magnifies the physical benefits. But barring the invention of a Nordic Track that fits into a standard shelter cage, how can we ensure our caged cats are working out instead of dropping out while living in close confinement?

Shelters' Edge blogger Kat Miller, Ph.D., CAAB, CPDT, provides a starter list of fun ideas you can try at your shelter – add your own ideas in the comments.