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| © Marin Humane Society |
When Santa Claus comes to town, he usually brings presents, but last December, the Madera Animal Shelter in California was visited by a Santa who took things away.
But there were no squeals of protest from the staff of the rural, underfunded animal control agency. The Santa who came calling from up North was their “big sister” shelter, the Marin Humane Society, and what the elves took away were nearly 80 cats and dogs in need of homes. “They completely emptied out our shelter,” says Kirsten Gross, director of animal control. “It gave us a totally fresh start on the new year. ... And their adoption rate is so fantastic—those animals have a chance at a home now.”
Marin developed its Pet Partnership program for animal transfer several years ago, when staff noticed how often the kennels and cages in their Novato shelter were empty. The shelter’s high adoption rate and reduced intake could have been viewed as the ultimate victory in the battle against animal homelessness, but Marin employees didn’t want to rest on their laurels.
“We all felt really strongly that even if we weren’t euthanizing any healthy animals, there wasn’t any reason to celebrate if they were euthanizing them 30 miles away,” says executive director Diane Allevato. “It would seem like a fairly shallow celebration.” Today, the Pet Partnership program now brings in animals from 35 shelters around California—no small task even for an organization as resource-laden as Marin.
Figuring out how to help other communities struggling with different socioeconomic realities can be a tricky process, bringing to mind the serenity prayer: Accept the things you cannot change, change the things you can, have the wisdom to know the difference. Marin couldn’t export its own affluent, educated constituency to an impoverished rural area, nor could it change the daily reality of a community like Madera, where, according to Gross, you can see stray animals on the streets all the time.
But when staff heard how overcrowded the animal control facility in Madera was, they realized they could export training and other assistance, helping an overburdened shelter catch up with the times.
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| © Marin Humane Society |
The scale of the December transfer was an unusually large form of assistance, but Marin staff wanted to give the Madera agency a big holiday gift. Typically, the humane society tries to provide more than an outlet for animals; staff have also helped arrange for a grant to help Madera vaccinate its animals, and they’ve brought cat cages, blankets and other comfort items that the animal control agency can’t afford to purchase.
“We don’t want to just take animals from Madera,” Allevato says. “What we want to do is give something in return, and what we’re trying to do ... is develop a relationship where we provide them with resources and expertise, workshops and education for their staff.”
The end goal of this mentoring model is that gradually Madera staff will have fewer animals in need of transfer after attacking the roots of the problems they face through new programs and services: community spay/neuter services, vaccinations of shelter animals, and better health-related protocols and disinfection procedures in their own facility.
“Marin has already done a lot of the things we’re just getting started with,” says Gross. “They’ve got a big foster program, they’ve got volunteers, and we’re just beginning to try those things. So they’ve been able to help us a lot.”
Marin staff provide sample forms that Madera staff can use as templates, and conduct workshops on effective cleaning and other operational procedures. While they continue to take animals from the facility, they hope that the other assistance they provide will help Madera reach a point one day where animal transfer will no longer be necessary.
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| © Marin Humane Society |
“So essentially a shelter in a very poor area with very few resources can enhance and develop its programs,” says Allevato. “That kind of relationship feels better to us than just acting as transporters.”
For the Marin Humane Society and Madera Animal Control, staff involvement both internally and at the partnering shelter is a big part of what has made the program rewarding—they’ve become friends through their work together. To develop such an arrangement, the staff of the shelter that’s providing assistance have to buy into the program for the long haul.
“It has to be an organizational decision,” says Kim Lanham-Snyder, shelter services director at Marin. “You can have [one] department want to do it, but that doesn’t mean [the] organization should, because it impacts every department, whether you want it to or not. It’s not just animal care and the clinic—it’s adoptions, it’s PR, it’s development.”
Janet Fortner, Marin’s coordinator of the Pet Partnership program, says the mood of Marin’s staff and changing daily circumstances often govern her own willingness to saddle the staff with an added burden. “At some points in the programs I feel really comfortable bringing animals in. Other times I feel I should sneak them in because everybody’s a little disgruntled about the enormity of animals that we have,” says Fortner. “It’s kind of a balancing act.”
“You can’t bring in 20 animals without it having a huge effect on the work day,” says Lanham-Snyder. “But you can’t trickle them in one at a time when you’re going eight hours [there and back] to get them.”
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| © Marin Humane Society |
Alleviating staff concerns is usually just a matter of bringing employees along on the next transfer trip so they can see for themselves what a difference they’re making. “It only takes one visit and they’re hooked,” Fortner says. “After that, I have a hard time keeping them away.”
The sense of community has brought new energy to the staff at Madera, too, says Gross. While the agency still struggles with the number of animals its community generates, the media coverage generated by its partnership with Marin has helped make more locals aware of the problems, and has inspired some to volunteer.
And the agency can see how much difference the partnership has made: Two years ago, its adoption rate was 9 percent; since it started working with Marin, that number has more than doubled to 25 percent. “We still have a long way to go,” says Gross, “but with their mentoring, I think we’ll get there. It’s surely making a big difference for us and the animals at our shelter.”
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