pet connection

Here at the No Kill Conference in Washington DC. we’re hearing from what’s called “The  90 Percent Club” — communities that are saving 90 percent and more of their dogs and cats.

The panel is being moderated by Ryan Clinton of FixAustin.org (another community that’s been saving 90 percent for several months now), and includes Bonney Brown of the Nevada Humane Society, Reva Laituri of the No Kill Upper Peninsula Animal Welfare Shelter in Marquette, Mich., Mitch Schneider of Washoe County Animal Control, Michael Linke, Director of the Royal SPCA in Tasmania, Australia, and Suzane Kogut, the Executive Director of the Charlottesville SPCA, an open admission animal control shelter that is celebrating its fifth year of no-kill.

The panel opens with Mitch Schneider talking about the public-private partnership between animal control and the Nevada Humane Society. He was “against” no-kill, thought it was a divisive term, but when Washoe County decided to go no kill and brought in Bonney Brown, he figured he’d just “do my job and stay out of her way.” But that didn’t last:  “She changed our world for the better.”

Bonney points out that Nevada Humane takes ALL Washoe County’s owner surrendered pets.

Mitch: In a transformation in ANY field, you can retrain a third, fire a third, and a third will quit.

Bonney says that’s pretty much what happened at Nevada Humane — only four original staffers left.  Says board became receptive after a scandal damaged the shelter’s image in the society.

She says that all team members have to be on board with the mission. Tough decisions are what you’re being paid to make and the animals lives depend on it. You will have to fire people.

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Presenter: Stacy Coleman, Exec Director, Animal Farm Foundation

When we breed label a dog we are making behavioral predications. But, we’re virtually always wrong….

What’s a Pit Bull? Descriptions vary across the board. When we look at a dog, we’re guessing, but 75% of the breed label predictions in shelters are wrong.

There is no behavior that’s unique to one kind of dog. – Aimee Sadler, Longmont Humane Society, CA

The well-known myths and generalizations abound….terriers, dog-aggressive, high pain threshold, enormous prey drive, will do anything to please.

Cropped ears are a fashion statement (or an attempt at one). Scars happen for a multitude of reasons. Making an assumption on a dog based on scars provides no useful information. Dogs are individuals.

Policies and practices

You will be successful and fulfill your mission and manage risk when you:

Observe the dog, document observations, disclose known facts, stick to the facts, transfer ownership to the new owner.

There are lots of discriminatory policies –

If you have special restrictions on PB adopters, screening processes, mandatory training just for PB’s, special screening process, you are being counterproductive and harming your mission.

Have your cutest, best behaved and friendliest PB work up front as the greeter.

Teach your PB’s cute little parlor tricks: high five, pray, etc.  Don’t give away free lunches, keep them busy, exercise their minds. Find good energy outlets.

Best marketing practices:

Happiness sells, sadness repels. Emphasize the human-canine bond. Take photos at dog level, not from overhead. Happy dogs are just plain cuter.

Have the PB pose with the white fluffies and the goldens. Include local landmarks and popular spots. Picture dogs already living in the community. Use costumes and props. They work (even if you think they’re absurd).

Stop naming your dogs Tank. Give them cute names – ICarly, Hanna Montana

Get yourself a video flip or good quality camera. Use it liberally.

Make business cards for your dogs! It’s easy, you can do it on a computer. Give the dog a vest, with business cards in the pocket. Take your most adoptable PB’s to a parade, dressed up in a cute outfit. Market them…with business cards! Promote shamelessly.

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Presenter: Christie Keith. Yes, OUR Christie Keith.

Polling whether attendees’ orgs have PR departments. Vast majority do not.

Alienation with the media happens needlessly, and can be prevented. If you don’t like what the press is doing, perhaps it’s your message that isn’t being pitched correctly.

Think about who you’re talking to. Not just who are you targeting, but also consider sportcasters, media entertainment reviewers, meteorologists, etc. These people have pets, too, and they haven’t heard your message yet. If you’re looking for adopters, donors, volunteers, they are the people you’re trying to reach that you may not have already reached.

Expand who your message is being delivered to, but rethink what your message IS. The ask shouldn’t be re-layered with cluttered extraneous stuff. Ask for ONE thing. The point of your request should be crystal clear. The reporters, bloggers, broadcasters, editors and other columnists who get your issues are a tiny sliver of the media people who have pets.

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Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D., of the Center for American Progress is doing a presentation on social media advocacy. Not particularly animal-related.

Talks about additive summation. Used Pres. Obama asking everyone to call congressional reps last week, they call — and crash the phone system — but they also post to reps’ Facebook pages, protest outside of their offices, etc. Hit them everywhere, they’re more likely to budge.

Same for us if we want to mobilize people we know. Reach with Twitter, Facebook, signage, talking in coffee shop, house parties, dog-washing parties. Bring people together, spread the message. We know repetition works with messaging. When we hear from more than one source, there’s this thing called “source amnesia,” they may not remember where they heard the message, but they remember the message.

Social media. “Here Comes Everybody.”

The way things were: Talks about email lists of the past. Email is a closed communication loop.

The way things are now: Eg, Congress can’t ignore FB, Twitter, etc. on social networks is because the world can see. Because the reason most people are there is to share what they find.

Social is not intrusive. It’s not in your email box. It’s just in your news stream. That is the nature of the platform. It’s there, then it’s gone, you don’t have to do anything about it if you don’t want to.

Members of Congress may not care to hear from non-constituents by email, phone, via web contact, but they have to care that people from anywhere can shut down their Facebook page with posts, or organize to raise money for their opponent.

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No kill advocacy with Ryan Clinton. It’s time to talk about Austin.

1. You are not unique
2. Winning = relationships.

Every letter Ryan gets starts with “you are not going to believe this.” But you’ve got to get past the victimization status.

You are not going to be effective advocate by blogging or being on facebook or staging a protest. The real way to get people to make policy changes is to get them to want to, not scaring them. Until you have real relationships with human beings, you’re not going to accomplish anything.

Until you can get people in charge to stop in the supermarket and say hi to you and ask how your pets are doing, you won’t accomplish much.

So who is Ryan Clinton and why should we listen to him? Follow me under the  jump: (more…)

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