Cincinnati Tri-State No-Kill Movement ~ Together It's Achievable

The April meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State meet-up group began Lisa Weiler sharing the progress at the Boone County Animal Shelter. Boone County is starting a TNR project in conjunction with Ohio Alleycat Resources (OAR) on May 7^th (tentative date). For information please call the Boone County Animal Shelter at (859)586-5285.

They are also looking for homes for the unadoptable cats. There is a website called www.barncolonycats.org. They are trying to get together a list of properties where the feral cats coming into the local open admission shelters can be sent after spayed/neutered & microchipped.

Discs were available that contained 2 years worth of speakers’ handouts from the national No-Kill Conferences in Washington, DC.

Nathan Winograd‘s book Redemption was mentioned again. It is a very good read & is highly recommended.

The group was told that, despite what you would think, many of the national animal organizations (ASPCA, HSUS & PETA…..) are against the no-kill shelter idea. They are saying that spay/neuter is enough but statistics prove otherwise.

It was mentioned that there are now 31 shelters listed on the www.NoKillTriState.org website that have achieved the necessary 90% save rate. If they can do it, so can we!

Evelyn Black gave a talk on her experiences at the American Pets Alive Conference. She told us about the Austin Pets Alive struggles & victories. She also talked about similar movements in Rockwall, a suburb of Dallas, Dallas Pets Alive & San Antonio Pets Alive. All were present at the conference & had amazing results.

Refer to the “Resources” tab for the slide-shows from Evelyn’s very informative presentations.  Thank you Evelyn.

One of the keys is to reach out to the community; anywhere you can talk to the people. Tell them that you are going no-kill & support in the form of donations & volunteers will come. And you need to ASK first if the shelter director, workers & the county are willing to work with you. If not, there is always the option of political change through www.OhioVotesHumane.org, though this can take longer than you would like.

There is a board meeting at the Clermont County Humane Society in April with several people who will discuss the No-Kill philosophy to determine if they are willing to work with the community to achieve No-Kill. Whether they agree or not, with the experiences of the people in Texas, we have a plan to go forward.

Based on the American Pets Alive seminar, there is the need for a non-profit group working towards No-Kill in each individual county.  If you know of an existing 501(c)(3) organization in any county that is willing to support the county’s No-Kill Initiative, please contact admin@NoKillTriState.org.

On September 15 & 16, 2012, Nathan Winograd will return to Cincinnati, OH along with new speakers for the 2^nd annual Great Shelters Conference.  You can learn more and register for the conference early-bird special at www.GreatSheltersConference.com

It was reported that there are several counties in the immediate area who are working toward the no-kill objective already: Gallatin and Boone counties in Kentucky, Brown county Ohio & Union county in Indiana.

It was mentioned that some places have what seem to be very restrictive adoption policies. We all want the animals to go to a good home but sometimes the adoption processes are too stringent. But it seems that only SOME people that work at these shelters are asking the potential adopters questions that are seemingly restrictive. Adoption policies need to be more uniform within an organization to ensure quality customer service.

The overall suggestion from most people & places is that craigslist WORKS. It works for volunteers, adoptions, fosters, etc. & should be more utilized.

Thank you Dana White for volunteering to record the notes of the meeting.

Mark your calendars for the scheduled upcoming No-Kill meetings on: (refer to upcoming events in the lower right column for details)

Tuesday, May 8, 2012, Blue Ash Public Library

Wednesday, June 6, 2012, Anderson Public Library

Hold this date! If you’ve yet to physically attend one of our meetings, this is one you’ll want to attend. Anita Barron (and others) will share status and plans to make Clermont County No Kill!

We’re looking forward to seeing you at the May meeting of the No Kill Tri-State Initiative on Tuesday May 8, 2012 from 6:30 – 8:30 PM at:

Blue Ash Branch of the Cincinnati Library

4911 Cooper Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45242
513-369-6051

Bring a friend (or two or three)!

Mark your calendar – the April meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Initiative will be held on Monday, April 2, 2012 from 6:30 – 8:30 PM at the Erlanger Branch of the Kenton County Public Library.

Monday April 2, 2012  6:30-8:30
Kenton County Public Library, Erlanger Branch
401 Kenton Lands Road
Erlanger, KY 41018
859-962-4000

See you there, bring a friend (or two or three).

The March meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Movement was held in Boone County, KY and attended by 17 enthusiastic participants, many attending for the very first time. The focus of the meeting was to share the learning’s from the American Pets Alive Conference attended by Beckey Reiter and Evelyn Black.

During the introduction of members we learned that Gallatin and Harlan Counties in Kentucky and Union County in Indiana were NO-KILL in 2011 – Congratulations! We asked that they continue to return to meetings to share their experience and provide guidance to the Tri-State efforts. After members introduced themselves Beckey began sharing her insights and impressions from the conference. She was thrilled to discover that Boone County has reason to be proud as they already have many progressive programs in place. Boone County will initially focus their efforts at improving the following 3 programs of the No-Kill Solution:

1. Foster Program – Beckey recently added a part-time employee who has had great success in promoting the shelter on Facebook. Their friend list is expected to top 2,800 in a few weeks with a reach (friends of friends ) equating to exponentially more exposure for the shelter. Beckey plans to add 152 new volunteers (Austin Pets Alive has 2,000 volunteers) in the next 6 weeks to support the ever increasing need for fosters (through appeals on social media and Craigs List) and to transition tasks from staff to volunteers to permit the staff to complete program related activities.
2. Off-Site Adoptions – Boone County will add 2 new teams to support their mobile adoption unit.
3. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Program – Devon Smith from OAR Spay/Neuter Clinic will conduct TNR training for anyone interested on Saturday, March 31st at 10:00 AM at the Boone County Shelter. A number of farm owners have already expressed interest in having their colony cats sterilized through the program. Pet Alliance previously donated $4,000 for Boone County’s new TNR program, funding made possible from a PETCO grant.

To support the flood of new volunteers expected, Boone County is moving their orientation training online, providing a self-learning training station for volunteers at the shelter and developing 2 new volunteer training programs: one for behavior and another for animals with special needs.

Learning’s from the conference reinforced the results from Boone County’s holiday promotions (i.e. name your own price, extended holiday hours and free Christmas Eve delivery) indicating they must continue to find more interesting and unique ways to market their animals. Their current promotion for March Madness reduces the adoption fee by $50 when the adopter arrives wearing their favorite college jersey and makes a donation from the shelter’s needs list.

Additional topics discussed included:

• Putting a cooler in the van with the Animal Control Officer so they could vaccinate animals BEFORE entering the shelter. Austin discovered that 70% of their “sick” animals were not vaccinated until the day after their admission.
• Using a color-coded collar system for dogs to identify behavioral traits. Bonnie Brown is familiar with the “stop-light” program used at the League for Animal Welfare in Clermont County and agreed to consult with Beckey in creating their program.
• Boone County’s shelter is now holding weekly staff meetings on Thursdays to communicate changes, share successes and continue to find innovative ways to save more animals.
• Use of a Volunteer Management Team to drive leadership in making the necessary changes to achieve their 90% save rate goal.

Evelyn shared some of the following learnings/insights from the conference:

1. Because Austin Pets Alive only pulls from their shelter’s euthanasia list, they approach their work with a sense of urgency, much like animal rescue in natural disasters where a timely intervention is crucial to protect the life of the animals.  Literally for the animals on an euthanasia list at an open admission animal shelter, timely intervention is crucial since that animal’s death has already been scheduled.
2. Austin Pets Alive ”Think Retail” and do an exceptional job of marketing their animals.
3. The volunteers and the money flowed to the shelters in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio when they announced their intention to achieve No-Kill.

The path to No-Kill in Austin, TX involved 2 major groups of volunteers working for the same goal but on different fronts.

1. Fix Austin was created to engage political activism to create the changes needed at the shelter that would help save lives.
2. Austin Pets Alive was the neutral life-saving Doers who made a difference for the shelter animals slated for euthanasia under the current shelter leadership while gaining citizen’s support.

Luckily for Boone County, Kentucky, their open admission animal shelter has embraced the life-saving programs and only needs to expand the programs while building the community’s support, by volunteerism, donations and most importantly adoptions.

Anita Barron shared plans for Ohio Votes for Animals and requested members to enroll to “Get Political” for animals.

The April 2012 meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Movement is planned to be held in Kenton County, Kentucky.

What can YOU do to help between now and the April meeting:

1. Contact Anita Barron to assist with indexing the resource CD received from Nathan Winograd at the 2012 Great Shelters Conference along with the material received from the American Pets Alive Conference.
2. Now that the primaries are over in Ohio, begin collecting contact information on every candidate in every race in the Tri-State.
3. Contact Beckey Reiter and volunteer your time and talent to the Boone County Initiative.
4. Search through your list of family, friends and colleagues for animal advocates and bring a friend or two (or three) to the April meeting.

No-Kill is achievable in open admission shelters as evidenced by 29+ such shelters.  Refer to the map of No-Kill Communities posted to the right of this article.  The information on the map is from No Kill News website which has certain guidelines that a shelter must meet if they are to be listed as No-Kill.  One such guideline is that the shelter’s animal statistics must be posted on their website (transparency) in order to be listed as No-Kill.  We will soon be updating the map to show those communities that have embraced the No-Kill Programs and are on their way to achieving the Save Rate of 90% of all their Shelter Animals to become a No-Kill Community.

Mark Your Calendars:  Sept. 15 and 16, 2012 will be the 2nd annual Great Shelters Conference with Nathan Winograd who is the leader of the No-Kill Movement returning to Cincinnati as well as new speakers including Diane Blankenburg with the Nevada Humane Society in Reno, Nevada which has already become a No-Kill Community saving more than 90% of their Open Admission Shelter Animals.  The Conference Registration Site will be announced shortly.

Becky Reiter, Director of the Boone County Shelter, will share details of their efforts to achieve No-Kill and new tools to support the No-Kill efforts from the American Pets Alive! Seminar in Austin, TX.

If you’ve yet to physically attend one of our meetings, this is one you’ll want to attend. Becky attended the conference with Evelyn Black and the two of them have some fabulous new ideas every county in the Tri-State can implement to save more animals.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at the March meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Initiative on Monday March 5, 2012 from 6:30 – 8:30 PM at:

Boone County Public Library – Main Branch
1786 Burlington Pike
Burlington, KY 41005
859-342-BOOK(2665)

Bring a friend (or two or three)!

A dedicated group of animal advocates  met on Tuesday, February 7th for the 4th meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Movement. The meeting was led by Anita Barron and Evelyn Black.

The group discussed adding a 2nd day to the 2012 Great Shelters Conference to be held on Saturday, September 15th at the Blue Ash Crowne plaza. Diane Blankenberg from the Reno, Nevada Humane Society is scheduled to speak and is willing to add an additional day to share the details of HOW to make No-Kill happen in a county shelter. The consensus was to add the extra day and to open it up to all who wish to attend. Volunteers are needed now to make the 2012 Great Shelters Conference a success. Those interested in helping in any way are asked to contact Anita Barron now.

Lisa Weiler provided an update on Boone’s County’s No-Kill Kick-Off Event held on January 28th. The event was very well attended and 40 new volunteers joined to support Boone County in achieving No-Kill . Boone County’s focus is on improving their foster care and trap-neuter-return programs. Anita Barron announced that Pet Alliance was donating $4,000 from their PETCO grant to create a TNR program in Boone County.

The group viewed a video titled “The Life” detailing the history of the Humane Movement in the United States and Anita Barron led a discussion reminding us of our passion to save more animals and discussing the need to continue moving forward to achieve that goal.

Anita Barron (Clermont County), Evelyn Black (Warren County) and Barb Young (Hamilton County) are leading initiatives for political change locally in support of the No-Kill Movement. A new 501(c)(4) organization named Ohio Votes for Animals (http://www.ohiovoteshumane.org/) has been formed to create a block of voters state-wide to support the passage of legislation favorable to the No-Kill Initiative.

The group watched the 2007 initial presentation that Ryan Clinton made before the City Council in Austin, TX for rejecting excuses for killing at the Austin pound.  As Ryan Clinton declared in 2007 to the Austin City Council, it was not a matter of “whether” Austin, TX would become a No-Kill Community (defined as saving over 90% of all the Open Admission Shelter Animals), but “when” Austin would become No-Kill.  Today, Austin, TX has achieved the No-Kill Status and is now helping other communities do the same.

February 23rd, 2 local Animal Advocates (Beckey Reiter and Evelyn Black) will be attending a 5-day Conference in Austin, TX that will share Austin’s steps to success and help expedite our efforts to acheiving No-Kill.

Two county commissioners will be elected in 2012 in 86 of the 88 counties in Ohio, presenting an opportunity to make No-Kill an election issue. Cuyahoga and Summit Counties are the only 2 Ohio county governments governed by the county charter form of government with a County Executive and an 11 member county council.  Become more informed about your politicians’ position on saving more of your county’s shelter animals by visiting www.OhioVotesHumane.org to register.

Bonnie Brown volunteered to collect names at the annual League for Animal welfare Picnic on August 5th, she will request approval.

A discussion followed regarding Oreo’s Law in New York and a similar law in Delaware. The group discussed the need for education and clarification regarding the No-Kill Movement when addressing politicians and persons of influence within the animal control community.

Evelyn Black gave a presentation on the Shelter Pet Project focused on removing the stigma of adopting a shelter animal. The initiative is led by the Ad Council (sponsored by Maddies Fund and Humane Society of the United States) and presents data indicating that every open admission shelter in America can be No-Kill by increasing adoptions by 2 animals per day, every day. Their slogan is “A person is the best thing to happen to a shelter pet.”

Evelyn Black also discussed the Just One Day challenge on June 11, 2012 for every shelter in America to end the killing for just one day. The day was selected as the anniversary of Nathan Winograd’s arrival in Tompkins County, New York.

The meeting closed with the viewing of the Nevada Humane Society’s pet adoption video.

The next meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Movement will be on Monday, March 5th at 6:00 PM at the Boone County, KY public library – details to follow.

Come join us at the February 2012 meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Initiative on Tuesday, February 7th from 6:30 – 8:30 PM at:

Cincinnati Public Library (North Central Branch)
11109 Hamilton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45231
Phone: 513-369-6068

The agenda will include details about the kick-off of the Boone County No-Kill Initiative and an effort to affect political change in the Tri-State – you don’t want to miss it!

If you’re interested in assisting with the planning efforts for 2012, please contact Anita Barron.

 For at least Just One Day, June 11, 2012 we could be a No Kill nation!

Attention all Shelters and Rescues!  Open Admission Shelters take the pledge to not to kill any savable animals.  Limited Admission Shelters and Rescues take the pledge to help traditional shelters in your area meet their No Kill pledge on June 11, 2012, or a longer time-period specified.  Free Media Packets for all that take the pledge.  Download the “Just One Day” song as a great motivator.

 What is a day? There are many ways to answer that question. A day is 24 hours. A day is how we measure how much time we spend at work. A day can be something we look forward to, a celebration of some kind. But in U.S. animal shelters, a day represents 10,411 lives needlessly lost. To most people, June 11 is Just One Day. But, June 11 is a day that could change everything for 10,411 companion animals, and a day that can change the world. On June 11, 2012, we could be a No Kill nation.

http://www.justoneday.ws/

The January 2012 meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Initiative has been cancelled to allow county committees to complete some much needed planning for their 2012 program. Everyone is encouraged to attend the February Meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Movement on Tuesday, February 7th from 6:30 – 8:30 PM at:

Cincinnati Public Library (North Central Branch)
11109 Hamilton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45231
Phone: 513-369-6068

If you’re interested in assisting with the planning efforts for 2012, please contact Anita Barron. Best wished for a safe, happy and wonderful holiday season and we look forward to working with each and every one of you to save more shelter animals in 2012.

Unfortunately attorney Curt Hartmann was not able to atttend to share how Animal Advocates can utilize the Sunshine Laws (a State version of the Federal Freedom of Information Act) to access Animal Shelter information. We will reschedule his presentation for a future meeting. Anita said some general information on the topic can be found in the .pdf file “Transparency” in the “Reforming Animal Control” Folder on the Great Shelters CD. Don’t have the CD?  Come to a meeting to purchase one.

After brief introductions by those in attendance, Carolyn Evans shared information on the status of the No-Kill Initiative in Boone County, KY. They completed their first TNR event with support from OAR (13 feral cats) and learned some very valuable lessons.  The Shelter staff has agreed to remain open the week of Christmas and dress up in costumes for the deliveryof animals on Christmas Eve to families purchasing them as gifts. The Shelter’s web site is getting an overhaul to provide their staff with more control  over the content and a new logo is being designed for use on the site and in their marketing/correspondence. County residents will also receive a flyer from the Shelter with their annual dog license renewal communicating their pledge to improve the save rate (46% for 2011) for 2012 and requesting resident’s support to do so. A date has not been set for the January rally to kick-off their No-Kill Initiative. Carolyn is planning a $1,000 matching challenge to raise money for the Shelter.

Anita Barron reviewed the details of a new Pet Alliance pilot program to get apartment owners to require the animals of residents get spay/neutered and microchipped. Gail Silver suggested selecting an apartment complex in Boone County to support their no-Kill Initiative. Anita agreed to investigate that possibility. 

Anita Barron led a discussion about sources for new members/supporters/volunteers to contribute to the Tri-State No-Kill Initiative. Ideas included everything from college students to seniors with some discussions about the organizations CAVA and HYPE.

The group discussed efforts by Kenton County, KY to implement portions of the No-Kill Equation. Their Shelter Director and volunteers are interested in saving more animals.  Anyone interested in helping expand the Kenton County programs?  Please contact Anita Barron to discuss ways you can help.

The meeting concluded with a discussion led by Charlotte White-Hull to author a grant with the Hamilton County SPCA for a pilot TNR program. Charlotte and Jim Tomaszewski will follow-up individually on this potential opportunity.

Attendees had time after the meeting to network with others and some continued the discussions at dinner afterwards.

SAVE THE DATE!  The 2nd Annual Great Shelters 1 Day Conference will be held on Saturday, September 15, 2012 in Cincinnati, OH.  Nathan Winograd will be the keynote speaker again this year.  Mr. Winograd is the national leader of the No-Kill Movement and it is a rare treat to secure his attendance in Cincinnati for a second year.  We will be adding new speakers for the 2012 Conference….we will keep you updated as we receive confirmations from these experts in the No-Kill Movement.

The January 2012 meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Initiative has been cancelled to allow county committees to complete some much needed planning for their 2012 program. Everyone is encouraged to attend the February Meeting of the No-Kill Tri-State Movement on Tuesday, February 7th from 6:30 – 8:30 PM at:

Cincinnati Public Library (North Central Branch)
11109 Hamilton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45231
Phone: 513-369-6068