Sunday, January 12, 2014

"If we had more money..."

I often hear the excuse from poorly-performing shelters such as Pet Rescue, that they would do a better job "if they had more money".

This isn't true. They will do a better job when they make a commitment to do so. Ironically, the better job they do, the more donations and community support they would get. It doesn't work the other way around.

Keep in mind, for example, the Memphis Animal Shelter:

It has a budget of $7.2 million.

It has over 550 cages and a brand-new facility.

It has multiple, full-time paid staff members.

And yet, because it is plagued by the same administration and procedural problems as Hermiston Pet Rescue, even with lots of money, it still euthanizes healthy, friendly animals "for space", even when there are empty cages. It still does a poor job advertising online, often killing nice pets without the public even knowing they exist. It "oops kills" pets that have owners looking for them in the next room. It kills kittens and puppies without even contacting anyone to ask for foster homes. The list goes on.

There is no excuse for not following the Animal Shelter Best Practice Guidelines. The size of your budget has nothing to do with it.