1500!

For those business-minded individuals, you will already know what a 'KPI' is, but for those not familiar with the acronym, it translates to 'Key Performance Indicator'...  So, why would I be writing about KPI today on a TLC blog?

Primarily because we keep an eye on our KPIs... 

And because we are a non-profit (and don't make much if any profit), unlike most businesses, the financial aspect is not a primary KPI for TLC... We track other things as our primary KPIs... Like how many dog lives we have saved since TLC as an entity was born... 

Allow me to introduce Boffo and Beaucoup:

And why are they important to us?  Because momma (Boffo) is number 1500 for TLC, and her pup (Beaucoup) is 1501 since June, 2009... Or not quite one dog's life per day... Both mom and pup came from Ventura County Animal Services (VCAS) which has also committed itself to No-Kill 18 months ago...

We as a rescue did not commit ourselves so heavily to taking dogs and puppies from VCAS at one time... And we fought hard for VCAS to commit to No-Kill, but now that we are both headed in the same direction, we do our absolute best to help our county achieve No-Kill by 2017... And how do you do that?... By one or two dogs at a time... 

VCAS vet techs, Dr. H and Linda Nelson with Boffo and Beaucoup

TLC reached this amazing number with volunteers, no government funding or corporate sponsorship... We do this through sheer willpower and a conscience determination to do what is right towards these small dogs dumped into shelters by irresponsible dog owners...  And yes, there are some months we barely can cover the electric bill at the rescue shop, but the level of the care these dogs receive from TLC is better than many pet owners give their dogs...

And there are some very kind and generous folks who make monthly donations to help us over that hurdle of 'too many dogs to save, not enough money to do it' set of circumstances... Others bring in items on our wish list (we do 14-16 loads of laundry a day - OMG! - so are always running out of bleach, detergent and softener, etc.)... Then others spread the word of what we are doing at the rescue shop among their friends and associates, advising folks that 'adoption is the ONLY way to go' when thinking about adding a new furbaby to their life and lifestyle... 

Just like it takes a community to raise a child, it takes all of a county's residents for a county to go No-Kill... Buy puppies off the Internet, from pet shops or from backyard breeders and you contribute to the 800,000 animals this state kills every year in our shelter systems...

Another KPI for us in TLC is that for every four saves we do, we will do one 'hard case'... And we save the number one breed dying the shelters, day in and day out... We also save one Pitty per month, despite not being set up for the bigger dogs...

This year I fostered a momma Pitty/Boxer and she had 9 puppies in our home in January 2013... Her pups grew up, were spayed/neutered and went onto furever homes... But the momma dog?... She adopted us as a family and we put her to work being an ambassador of this breed... Momma has now been certified for therapy and received her CGC certification in May of 2013... Every day she comes to the rescue shop that I do, she goes home with me at night... She loves traveling in the truck and behaves exceptionally well with our other dogs (two being under 4 pounds and Chihuahuas)... In fact, Momma posed for next year's calendar done by TLC:

There are three things about KPIs that are so crucial to every business, set of life decisions you make and even to the overall lifespan you spend on this planet.... And I believe, we at TLC, do pretty well at establishing good KPIs and staying on task towards our goals:

1. They must be the heart of it all... They must be as closely linked to your top goals - be it in life, business or in a non-profit...
   
2. They must be quantifiable to some degree or point... Granted, how can you measure the quality of a dog's life easily?... But you start with life and move onto quality, health and long, natural life spans filled with love and care...
   
3. They must be something you have within your control... Something you can focus on and improve, use as motivation to do better at... Something you can look at and say, "Yes, we can do better if...."
   

So, please join us in the celebration of saving lives #1500 and #1501 - Boffo and Beaucoup - as we march onwards and upwards towards No-Kill in Ventura County!

P.S.  "Boffo" means extremely successful and "Beaucoup" means many or much... Beaucoup Boffo - many extremely successful saving of dog and puppy lives!

MAJOR KUDOS to all of the TLC volunteers, supporters and TLC alumni who chose to adopt and not shop!

Rescue group in crisis mode after cat euthanized, not treated

Humane Society‎ Sparks Outrage By Euthanizing Man's Kitten Over Money

 

 

PHOENIX -- Animal lovers threatened to pull donations to an animal rescue group and the public flooded the agency with scathing comments and calls after a man's cat was euthanized when he couldn't afford its medical care, prompting the Arizona Humane Society to go into damage-control mode Wednesday.  Read the rest of the story HERE.

 

NEWS: SafeHaven takes in rescue dogs

SafeHaven takes in rescue dogs

By Jennifer Moody, Albany Democrat-Herald

Posted: Friday, December 16, 2011 7:00 am 

Staff members at SafeHaven Humane Society don’t look much like Santa’s reindeer. But like Rudolph in the classic Christmas cartoon, they’re doing their best to find new homes for refugees from the Island of Misfit Dogs. The “island,” in this case, is Southern California, where shelters quickly fill with animals facing the equivalent of doggie death row. 

SafeHaven is partners with the Shelter Transport Animal Rescue Team, a California nonprofit that pays for transporting dogs from high-kill shelters in California to out-of-state rescue groups and humane societies. Every four to six weeks, START makes a rescue round, bringing dogs to partner shelters in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. 

The most recent round of rescues brought 250 dogs to Oregon, 40 of them to SafeHaven. SafeHaven became a partner a little more than a year ago and usually participates about once a month. But even before that, the shelter would occasionally send people to California to rescue dogs that stood a good chance of adoption up north.

The no-kill shelter doesn’t have space to accommodate the immigrants — plenty of Linn-area dogs also need its services — so sometimes it can take just one or two dogs. Twenty dogs — poodle, terrier, Chihuahua and Dachshund mixes, including one Dachshund mix with five puppies — made up the latest group, which arrived Thursday. Four more dogs are expected next week, and 16 came last week, although one, a pregnant German shepherd-border collie mix, gave birth to nine puppies the day after she arrived.

Director Chris Storm is confident they’ll all find homes soon. “We can’t keep little dogs in the shelter,” she said. “We had a litter of six today and they’re all gone.” SafeHaven has the capacity for about 30 dogs, or 60 if they’re small and get along. It also fosters puppies. It averages three to four dog adoptions a day, so the new dogs shouldn’t crowd anybody out, said Marti Cersovski, the humane society’s marketing communications manager.

Unfortunately, no similar rescue team exists for cats, at least not that Cersovski knows about. The stray or surrendered cat population continues to overwhelm SafeHaven, she said. 

On Highway 34 just west of the Interstate 5 interchange, SafeHaven is open from noon to 6 p.m. seven days a week Tuesday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Adoption fees pay for animals to be spayed or neutered, microchipped, vet-checked and vaccinated. 

Although it happens only occasionally, Cersovski said, some people who adopt an animal do end up bringing it back to SafeHaven, often saying they didn’t realize how much time or energy was involved. It’s important to be fully prepared for all the particulars before taking on that responsibility, she said. “It’s a lifetime commitment for the life of that dog or cat,” she said. “Especially at this time of year, we want them all to go home for the holidays, but we want them to go home forever.”

SOURCE

NEWS: Animal control plan has benefits, study says

Animal control plan has benefits, study says

San Joaquin County considers partnership with Stockton

Dogs await possible adoption at Stockton’s animal shelter. A new report says a more regional approach to animal control could save taxpayer dollars while boosting officer resources. Some question the study’s accuracy, however.CLIFFORD OTO/The Record

By Zachary K. Johnson

Record Staff Writer

December 16, 2011 12:00 AM

STOCKTON - All but one of the seven cities in San Joaquin County have balked at the idea of pooling resources to create a countywide system for animal control.

But a partnership between the city of Stockton and county government could still form the foundation for a more regional approach to animal control that could, from the outset, save taxpayer dollars while reducing the number of stray dogs and cats killed in the county, according to Stockton's Animal Protection League, an animal advocacy group commissioned by the county.

At its meeting this week, the county Board of Supervisors stopped short of voting to authorize staff to develop a joint powers authority with the city. But the board directed its consultant to meet with other animal advocates, to continue gathering information and to come back early in the new year.

"Please all get together and talk this over so we can come to a realistic and compassionate answer," board Chairman Larry Ruhstaller said.

Such a plan could put more animal control officers in the field, offer programs that will help push down the number of animals killed and allow the construction of a joint shelter to replace the outdated and inadequate shelter currently used by the agencies, said Tammie Murrell, director of the Animal Protection League and a former Stockton deputy police chief. "That, we believe, will not only improve services ... but improve euthanasia rates ... and improve the care of the animals," she said.

About $7.6 million would be needed to build a new shelter. Before a shelter is built, however, Murrell said the merging of the two agencies would bring other benefits, including ways to cut down euthanasia through an adoption and foster program, spaying and neutering services, humane education and use of volunteers.

Because of the economy of scale, an in-house veterinarian and a licensing unit to bring in revenue, Murrell said the plan could shave about $430,000 from city and county operating costs that were a little more than $2 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The plan allows for other cities to opt in at some future point. Since August, Lodi, Manteca and Escalon have shown interest in one or two components of a combined plan, but the other cities have shown no interest, according to the county.

Stockton's animal control and animal shelter are part of the Police Department. County government contracts with the city for the shelter. The county's animal control covers unincorporated land - from urban areas near Stockton to the county's rural reaches. Until this year, county animal control was part of the Agricultural Commissioner's Office. Now it is part of the Sheriff's Office.

The league's study doesn't include improvements made since the shift to the Sheriff's Office, said Ann Mooney, field representative for Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which represents county animal control officers. Mooney urged the board to not jump into discussions with the city without accurate and up-to-date information.

The study also drew fire from Eileen McFall, who said the study used systems with sky-high euthanasia rates as models. There are so-called "no-kill" models of shelters that save most of the animals they take in, said McFall, an animal advocate and professor at University of the Pacific.  "We could certainly be doing a lot better."

Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/johnsonblog.