Agenda - 09-19-2006-7b - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County Animal Services Sheltering Practices and Philosophies 69 The site of a large military base, Norfolk is home to a population that is always on the move. The high turnover means that attempts to educate the public typically have atwo-year life expectancy-people move in and out so quickly that awareness must be built and rebuilt constantly, Griggs plans to try to survey pet owners in the military, as well as other segments of the Norfolk population; assessments of the region will include telephone surveys of citizens. "We'll assess behavior and attitudes, knowledge of the constituents," says Griggs, "It's a model of needs assessment that is used in the healthcare industry aver and over again to decide about service delivery-based on actual need, not on assumption of need." Using Statistics to Challenge the Status Quo While the prospect of obtaining a Maddie's grant is one motive for conducting the study, Griggs points out that the survey results will help on a more dawn-to-earth, local level, too. Credible data regarding community needs is a valuable tool for getting funding and "buy-in" from the most important sources: local legislators and the community itself. Every shelter in the country dreams of having a million dollars fall from the sky, but with the grant application and numbers requirements for Maddie's money so far off the scale for so many communities, animal groups need to make sure that any plans they make to reduce their euthanasia numbers are not contingent on the dream of Maddie's millions, Some organizations have discovered firsthand the pitfalls of heading towards the goal of reduced euthanasia without a detailed roadmap, From Pennsylvania to Texas to California, community leaders have declared that local animal protection organizations will become "no kill" by a certain year; some have gone so far as to make that goal a mandate. But without along-range plan for changing attitudes, instituting comprehensive services, and gaining necessary resources, a community that tries to move toward the goal of ending euthanasia will always come up short-in some cases choosing quantity over quality just to be able to get animals out the door and into as many homes as possible, In other cases, the rush to reach the goal without actually running the race has led to confusion-both externally and internally. When .)im Bonner took over leadership of the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society in Pittsburgh last year, he was startled by the lack of forethought behind the organization's earlier decision to join the citywide "No Kill by 2005" initiative. "What I think I found was that there was no true consensus as to what this meant," says Bonner, "Even during the interview process, in talking to the board, there were some who really didn't think it was possible, no matter how it was defined to happen. I think they thought it was a great goal, but they really had no plans or visualization of how it could come to fruition." Drawing on his background as the former operations director of the Aviary in Pittsburgh, Bonner posed questions to his staff and his board that he thought