Alachua County Animal Welfare

2014 Progress Report

What happened in 2014?• 856 dogs and cats found homes on May 31 and June

1 during Maddie’s Pet Adoption Days

…and the adoption partners earned $625,000 to help save even more pets!

What happened in 2014?• 1,488 lives were saved at Alachua County Animal Services

from June 1 through August 31 during the ASPCA Rachael Ray Challenge – an increase of 415 over last summer!

ACAS placed second in their division in the national competition

What happened in 2014?• Alachua County maintained an 86% Live Release

Rate…just a few percentage points away from achieving “No-Kill” status

What happened in 2014?• More than 2,100 community cats were sterilized by

Operation Catnip...preventing the birth of thousands and thousands of unwanted stray kittens.

What happened in 2014?• More than 4,000 pets and community cats were

spayed and neutered by our low cost/high quality nonprofit clinic, Operation Petsnip

What happened in 2014?• Hundreds of pets of the needy and homeless, and

hundreds of rescue group pets received essential veterinary care from the Veterinary Community Outreach Program and St. Francis Pet Care Clinic.

What happened in 2014?• Needy and homeless pet owners received free pet

food, supplies, shelter diversion counseling, basic wellness services, pet care education and support from the Home Van Pet Care Project.

Our community partnership

GOAL:A No-Kill

Community

BY 2015

Alachua County Animal

Services

• Only open-intake Shelter• Adoptions, Spay/Neuter & Veterinary Care• Community Health• Enforcement Issues• Public agency funded by tax dollars

Rescue/ Adoption Partners

Spay/

Neuter

Partners

Funding & Technical

Assistance

A No-KillCommuni

tyBy 2015

• Transfer pets from ACAS• Adoption guarantee• NOT open-intake• Shelter diversion• Private nonprofits funded by donations

• Free or low-cost, high-quality sterilization• Trap-Neuter-Return and Shelter-Neuter-Return

programs for stray & feral cats• Nonprofits and private veterinarians

• Grant funders like the Wagmore Foundation, Maddie’s Fund, PetSmart Charities, Petco Foundation

• Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine

• ASPCA, HSUS

Nonprofit Project Partners

Saving Alachua County Animals

Alachua County

Humane Society

Gainesville Pet Rescue

Puppy Hill Farm

Helping Hands

Haile’s Angels

Second Chance Rescue

Operation Catnip

NMHP Operation PetSnip

*Plus other community organizations that are not reporting outcomessuch as Animal People, Plenty of Pitbulls and Phoenix Animal Rescue

A Public/Private Partnership that works!

Our animal welfare partnership leverages the Animal Services budget of $2,123,432 with the combined budgets of our local nonprofits totaling almost $3 million, for a $5 million dollar impact on the local economy.

The nonprofit partners attract millions of dollars of grants and donations, almost all of which is spent locally on wages, supplies and services.

A Public/Private Partnership that works!Volunteer hours at Alachua County

Animal Services almost doubled last year, from 1,995 hours in 2013 up to 3,702 hours in 2014.

Volunteer hours added an additional $55,000 in value to the ACAS budget last year.

Intakes at ACASDown 2.3% against 2013; Down 50% against baseline

Yellow is baseline Year 2000; Red is 2014Only open-intake shelter in community

5,631 2014 ytd5,766 2013 ytd

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Baseline 20002013 Intakes2014 Intakes

Community AdoptionsUp 14% against 2014; Up 120% against baseline

Yellow is baseline Year 2000; Pink is 20147 reporting organizations

5,410 20144,724 2013

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Baseline 20002010 Adoptions2011 Adoptions2012 Adoptions2013 Adoptions2014 Adoptions

Euthanasia at ACASUp 2% against 2013; Down 90% against baseline Year 2000

Black is baseline Year 2000; Pink is 2014

758 2014 742 2013

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Baseline 20002003 Euthanasias2004 Euthanasias2005 Euthanasias2006 Euthanasias2007 Euthanasias2008 Euthanasias2009 Euthanasias2010 Euthanasias2011 Euthanasias2012 Euthanasias2013 Euthanasias2014 Euthanasias

What does “No-Kill” mean?For Alachua County, we have decided it means that no

healthy or treatable dog or cat will be euthanized at Alachua County Animal Services for reasons of

population control. Euthanasia is reserved for petsthat cannot be humanely saved or that have been

determined to be dangerous to public safety.

Nationally, the benchmark typically recognized for no-kill status is a Live Release Rate of

90% or better

Alachua County’sLive Release Rate for 2014:

86%

In order to achieve our goal of becoming a no-kill community in 2015, we must reach a LRR of

at least 90%

Assuming intakes remain stable, this means we must

keep 2015 euthanasia below

550

How can we do this?

One strategy is to increase the percentage of Alachua County Animal Services transfers each rescue group takes as part of their total monthly intakes.

Current ACAS transfers as a percentage of average monthly intake(most recent six months):

Total Intakes % from ACAS

Alachua County Humane Society: 475 58%Gainesville Pet Rescue: 93 43%Puppy Hill Farm: 350 31%Helping Hands Pet Rescue: 412 42%Haile’s Angels Pet Rescue: 233 19%2nd Chance Rescue & Rehoming: 10 80%

Another strategy is to decrease intakes at ACAS through shelter diversion – helping pet owners keep their pets rather than relinquish them, and providing spay/neuter and other support for forever homes using the Humane Society of the United States Pets for Life model.

Recommended Strategies for 2015

• New fee schedule for unsterilized pets• Scheduled days for pet surrender• Shelter diversion counseling to reduce

owner surrenders• Implementing the Pets for Life approach

What to expect in 2015 from our nonprofit partners• An increased commitment to transferring pets

out of Animal Services

• To support increased Animal Services transfers, The Wagmore Foundation will partner with Best Friends Animal Society to offer a new monthly incentive stipend to each rescue group starting in 2015

• Rescue groups can earn a monthly stipend check if they maintain their 2014 average monthly intake PLUS ensure that at least 50% of their monthly intakes are from Alachua County Animal Services

What to expect in 2015 from our nonprofit partners

• An increased focus on shelter diversion

• To support shelter diversion and pet owner support, The Wagmore Foundation has purchased copies of the HSUS Pets for Life Community Toolkit manual for all Alachua County grantees.

• Wagmore will be entertaining proposals from Alachua County nonprofits that support the Pets for Life approach in Alachua County for 2015

Thank you from the Wagmore Foundation…

For rescuing… for finding lost pets… for providing veterinary care to pets in need… for adopting… for volunteering… for fostering… for donating… for spaying and neutering… for supporting pets of the homeless… for helping pets stay with their families…

…for making Alachua County a better place for pets and people.