The New Year’s letter I’d like to read
In which Jill channels her inner Warren Buffett on behalf of shelter dogs.
Every year, Berkshire Hathaway CEO and legendary investor Warren Buffett publishes a letter to his shareholders. Buffett’s “Letter to Shareholders” is anticipated not only by Berkshire Hathaway investors, but by the business community at-large, and analyzed by the financial community as a bellwether for industry trends. The letters have even been compiled and published as a book.
Large animal welfare organizations should take Buffett’s cue. With their sad commercials and copious billboards, these national rescues are embraced by animal lovers worldwide, generating tens of millions of dollars in donations annually. Their effectiveness is measured in what I call “counts and amounts”—i.e., how many animals have been saved. But as many grassroots rescues have learned, the number of shelter animals rescued every year is only part of the story.
Many of the best-funded rescues focus their efforts on getting the easy animals out. It boosts their numbers and elicits praise from donors who—through polished newsletters and logoed giveaways—are praised for contributing. Of course, donors SHOULD feel good knowing that their bonus check has saved 40,000 animals.
National rescues follow 501(c)(3) guidelines and publish their financials. But few actually share their strategies. If I donated to one of the national rescues, the annual letter I’d like to get would sound something like this:
Dear Supporter,
2021 has been both a rewarding and challenging year. We have certainly held fast to our numbers—this year helping more than 50,000 animals survive natural disasters, horrible hoarding situations, and overcrowded shelters.
However, we also recognize the trends in sheltering that have made our work more crucial than ever. Specific to the shelter world, long-term-stay dogs and cats represent an increasingly outsized portion of shelter animal populations. And, of these long-term-stay animals, many of them are senior, medical, or behavior cases.
As rescue becomes ever more normalized and euthanasia rates fall, the animals left behind need more and different types of intervention. National welfare groups have the funding, the resources, the infrastructure, and often the real estate to introduce innovative programs to help save even more lives.
But change is hard, and many of these organizations cling to the outmoded reporting on what’s known as “noses in, noses out.” Recent data published by PetPoint on “days in care” shows that:
“…with both cats and dogs, animals are being ‘warehoused’ at an alarming rate. Dogs are now staying 18 days longer than they were at the highest point—the start of the pandemic…. For September [2021], shelters are at levels more indicative of December, which is extremely concerning.”
Steve Zeidman, PetPoint
Shelters, rescues and even fosters and adopters look to national animal welfare groups to not only acknowledge shifts in the rescue world, but tackle them head on.
The letter I’d want to read would continue with solutions…
In the coming year, our organization plans on shifting away from last year’s operating model, sustaining our successful operations—like disaster response and humane TNR programs—while investing in new programs to decrease shelter animal tenure. These programs include:
Providing grant money for community-based sheltering successes. Our grant process will be looking at disruptive innovations that cultivate community awareness, resulting in lowering length of stay and keeping adoptable animals out of shelters. Grants will be awarded based on the effectiveness and scalability—not on the number of animals saved—of fresh ideas and their implementation.
Formalizing teams and methodologies for behavior dogs. For far too long, behavior cases in shelters have been an afterthought. But we have seen success in not only turning around behavior cases, but placing dogs who were considered difficult or even unadoptable into new homes. We will be launching a new initiative called “Behavior Saviors,” the goal of which is to standardize behavior assessments, cultivate new behavior and enrichment methods, and offer recruiting, training, mentorship, sponsorship, and certification to cultivate discrete behavior programs in shelters.
Expanding senior programs. As many people who have adopted a senior pet know, the experience is both rewarding and surprising. Far too many senior animals are euthanized too soon simply because shelters don’t have adequate diagnostic equipment or staff availability. We will be providing funding for the creative placement of senior dogs and cats in the community. Our new outreach coordinator is already reaching out to senior residential centers, sober living facilities, and even select businesses that are willing to consider bringing older pets into their environments and caring for them. We have begun developing a handbook for senior pet placement that offers resources, best practices, funding, and coaching for shelters willing to cast the net wider for their seniors.
Introducing more choices for medical care. Many of you are aware of the nationwide shortage of shelter veterinarians. Small shelters and rescue groups simply cannot take on many medical cases due to high costs of treatment. We will be setting aside discrete funds to modernize shelter clinic facilities and equipment. We are also announcing a partnership with University of California at Davis and 4 other schools of veterinary medicine to offer paid internships. We’re excited to reduce euthanasia rates for animals with treatable conditions.
You get the idea. Instead of hoping that fewer dogs and cats enter shelters, tapping saturated markets for fosters, and buying yet more advertising space for spay and neuter messaging, large animal welfare organizations will start to invest in systemic change. These investments will meet the rescue world where it is now, not where it’s been for the past decade.
Someone please write this letter! It can’t come soon enough.
