Humane Society & SPCA of Hancock County Findlay, OH

Hi Jan from Berlin Animal Control, Berlin CT

Ann Perrett Cherokee Humane Society GA

Beth from Cherokee County Humane Society in Woodstock, GA

Donna - Dalhousie, New Brunswick, Canada SPCA

Hi! Christine from HOPE in Houston TX

Carrie from BARK in Ashland, VA

Adan from Animal Services in El Paso, TX

Jay Garrett Jr. and Magan Gonzales, A Life to Live, Baytown, TX

Hi - Jen Luethy with Big Fluffy Dog Rescue, Nashville, TN

Hi from Shae with Houston Pets Alive! Houston, TX

So many friends and familiar names - Hi everyone, great to see you here!

will slides be available?

Yes the slides will be made available after the webinar!

Staci Griffin, Second Chance Pets, League City, Texas

Hi Beth & Ann!

Hey -- seeing you got in. Yay

Shameless self-promotion --

If anybody has opening for foster or adopt near west georgia, we are overwhelmed and need help!

Webinar should last 45 minutes to an hour.

Beth that's for you...creamsickle promotion!

Congratulations Susan on embracing open adoptions. Open adoptions is definitely the way to go. Everyone should read HSUS' Adopter's Welcome Guidelines - it is well written and clearly addresses these concerns and busts myths about the need for things like home visits.

https://www.animalsheltering.org/programs/adopters-welcome

I have had 3 cats in my bedroom for a year and a half. Had them since they were 4 months. What are the chances of getting them adoption. What suggestions can you give me?

Petfinder Foundation, too. "Forget the fairy tale" they call it.

Read the Adopter's Welcome information. It will explain it. Open adoptions basically means having a conversation with a potential adopter versus these long cumbersome applications where you make people jump through hoops to prove they will be a good adopter.

That's actually a myth Barbara. Read the Adopters Welcome guidelines. Shelters across North America are proving those myths wrong.

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OUCH!

sorry, kittens on the keyboard wanted to participate. :)

Is there a baseline for what is considered too high for fees from this study?

What are some sites I can place pictures and info for the cats I want to be adopted?

Chicago - kennel operators formed their own nonprofits to get around this law. So not helping homeless pets at all.

Shari, fee waived adoptions or as close to free as possible is going to increase your adoptions (number of animals you can save) while reducing length of stay.

No vet care for indoor cats is neglect.

I don’t understand this chat room, no one is answering my questions.

Agreed but from the public perspective, is asking a fee equal to what has been invested to fully vet a cat considered too expensive? Theoretically, they will spend that much or more anyway.

Yvette, adoptapet.com or petfinder.com are great sites for listing adoptable animals

Is there data that shows the relationship between application length/strictness and return rates?

Use rescuegroups.org. they will post for you on multiple sites! Nice way to keep track of your pets.

no fee adoptions allow people who may not be able to afford $500 worth of vet care (for example) get an animal who is already altered and started off with vaccinations. They may not be able to do every vaccination but they can provide a loving home.

Yvette - you can also consider transferring your cats out to groups that adopt out quickly and are looking for cats. New England shelters, shelters in the Pacific Northwest in particular are usually always looking for cats to place.

Thanks Karl for your information.

Yvette, I will email you with other suggestions.

Shari, yes, you will not be able to recoup the money invested into the animal you are rescuing and the longer you hold them trying to get that fee, the more money it will cost you. Every day you have that animal in your care increases your cost of care as well as their length of stay. It doesn't mean you can't ask for a donation when you have a fee waived or special priced event. Success attracts success and people do want to support lifesaving so the more you save, the more donations you will most likely receive.

I worked that hoarding case in Elk County too! Great outcome and great collaboraiton. The adoption event was trasnformational. Ask the public to help and they will!

Yes, thats why I was wondering about a baseline. What is "too much" from public perspective? When will they walk away? $50, $100,...

Our adult cat adoption fee is $25 and kitten adoption fee is $125

I think "too much" is hard to determine, and varies by area. In a location with a lot of low income people, $50 may be too much. In a population with wealthier people, you could do a lot more.

Thanks a lot Karl. I really appreciate it. Can I send videos of the cats?

We've offered cats for free and it still took months for several of them! Sometimes it just takes time. Adoption fees aren't always the barrier.

At local AC, cat or kitten fee is $10. Still have unfortunate number of returned adoptions, owner turn-ins and a rediculous number in population for last two weeks.

We can also check out what the "going rate" for new cat acquisition locally is. Here in Florida, a lot of people get their cats for free from friends, family, Craig's list, etc. So our competition is 'free' (of course we know our fully vetted cats are high-value and free isn't costless).

Shari, what Sue is talking about right now is super important. Being a resource for adopters will significantly reduce returns, give people the help they need to either keep their pet or place their pet outside of the shelter, etc.

I love this idea.

Yes, this entire webinar will be available for future viewing and listening.

Agreed and certainly a challenge in middle of nowhere west Ga. Trying. Progress daily. Still really frustrating.

Shari, there are a lot of great resources in Georgia. I'm happy to talk with you after the webinar. Feel free to email me at cameron.moore@ufl.edu.

Will do. Thank you!! :-)

I'm with a rescue and we seem to do our best to run off adopters rather than embrace them. I have more of a shelter background having been long associated with Austin Animal Center. Trying to change the culture in this rescue to improve our adoption rates.

I have had several situations where I would have given the person any cat he or she wanted. One was a student who lied about the fact that she lived in a NO PETS ALLOWED house, a family that had four unsterilized females in their home, a woman who put her cats outside with one being killed by a car and disappearing. I could go on.

Will we get a transcript of this chat? It’s got great Q&A.

It takes us anywhere from three days to a couple of weeks to process an application because of personal references plus vet check who don't return our contacts so we have to try again and again sometimes.

Beth, I'm so glad you have an open mind and are trying to help your group embrace open adoptions and being a resource. You've got the right idea!! Definitely download Adopters Welcome and share with those in your group. Have them listen to this webinar once it's posted online too.

We struggle with being a very small rural shelter where the community in general is not big on vetting--its hard to find good adopters when over half of the applications have unaltered pets.

I believe the chat transcript is included once the zoom has concluded.

Saw one where app asked if person had a doggy door and how they would keep the cat from going out of it. Seemed pretty silly to me.

Adoption is an opportunity to kindly offer a learning experience- the positives of spay/neuter, for example. By adopting out already altered animals, you also aren't relying on the local population to take care of that themselves.

Some things are needed by Department of Agriculture

When will we get the PDF worksheet?

Amber, we have found that most people do want to do the right thing for their pet but typically do not have access to affordable vet care. So it's not because they don't care, but because they don't have access. You may want to look at what resources are available in your community and if you don't have good resources, look at options in neighboring communities. Maybe a mobile clinic can visit your town or a transport could be set up to take animals to a non-profit clinic.

add an addendum to the contract

Kelly, I don't have an exact timeline, but it should be within the next few days.

Tried all that with someone that got new furniture that the cat decided to scratch. She still declawed the cat and then ended up giving it up three months later due to moving. Cat is still limping.

YES!!!!! Nail Caps & nail trimming tutorial at time of adoption is an excellent idea!

We offer to trim any cats nails for free (whether they adopted from us or not)

Thank you for the response-we sponsor almost all spay/neuters, we have a low cost spay clinic across the street, and sponsor community members if they reach out. We continue to discuss it on our Facebook page as well. The community is somewhat responsive, but we are still an area where so many people do not believe in it. We follow up on all adoptions to make sure they have spayed.

We are no declaw and happy about it. We inform and if person won't change their mind, we say no to the adoption.

Amber, are you adopting out unaltered animals?

The shelter will with contract. All cats that we pull into our rescue are altered before adoption.

Okay cool. I was just thinking it would be hard to encourage people in your area to do it with all of their animals, if the shelter/rescue wasn't doing it with all of theirs.

We adopt out unaltered kittens with contract that says must be altered when old enough. The cost of the surgery is prepaid so they have little reason to not follow through. We also follow up when the appropriate age has been reached for those who forget.

thank you so much!!

this was catastic!

Thank you!

Thanks for all you do!

Thank you!!

Thank you!

Thanks for the great webinar!

Thank you!

so no Q&A?

Thanks

alright...

Thank you for your info and time today!

We are also a breed specific rescue so we probably have fewer issues than others might. And we are in an area where everyon is pro S/N.

This was very helpful. Thank you!

Courtney, that would be a great email for our yahoo group with Million Cat Challenge. Other challengers would be happy to share their applications.