Animal Services are Family Services

Interesting article on the animal sheltering front:

"Animal Services = Family Services"

"Pets are family.  Animal services=family services.  Or at least, that’s the way it should be.  But all too often, it seems that there is simply a one-size-fits-all approach for authorities dealing with animal situations in people’s homes.  If the residents are breeding pets for sale, they are labeled a puppy mill.  If they have a large number of pets, they are called hoarders.  And it so often plays out the same way:  the animals are seized and sent to pet killing facilities while the people are charged as criminals.

When it comes to human families, social services appears to take a more nuanced approach.  They recognize that even when the home environment is lacking, the parents still have both legal rights to, and deep emotional bonds with, their children.  Breaking up a family by removing kids from the home and placing them into a shabby state foster system is viewed as a last resort.  Social workers generally seem to be able to distinguish the obviously evil parents whose malnourished 5 year old is in a diaper and locked in a closet from those who love their children but need education, assistance and monitoring in order to do a better job as parents.  The former must be charged as criminals and their kids saved from further abuse.  The latter need to be provided with the tools and skills required to bring the home environment up to societal norms."

What happened to Pequeno?

Pequeno is a small young friendly dog who escaped his yard earlier this month. He was picked up by police and taken to Pet Rescue. His owner very much wanted him back, but didn't have the money right away to pay his release fee. While the owner was waiting for their paycheck, Pet Rescue adopted him out to a different family. Pequeno's original owner still desperately wants to get him back.

There's of course a lot we don't know about the situation, but many people in the community have concerns. Why did Pet Rescue adopt out a dog they knew had a owner who wanted him back? Many people are concerned that Pet Rescue may have been motivated to adopt out such cute, young, friendly and highly-adoptable dog since they could make more money that way than on a release fee. Why are they refusing to work with the original owner at all at this point? Couldn't they get the adopter in contact with the original owner without compromising the adopter's personal information?

People are concerned that Pet Rescue is lying about what happened to Pequeno; they're concerned he  was actually euthanized or sold, or that their record keeping is so haphazard that they simply don't know who took him.

 Poorly-handled situations like this erode the community's trust in their animal shelter.

Certainly, Pet Rescue is not required to hold on to dogs indefinitely if their owners aren't able to pick them up right away. But, as a pet owner myself, it's scary to think what might happen to one of my pets if they escaped their yard.

Original information here.

Response to the Excuses of HSEO's Director

On 6/16/13, the East Oregonian published a newspaper article discussing the communities' issues with Pet Rescue. (It's behind a paywall, but it's only a dollar, and I encourage you to read the whole thing).

It quotes Jackie Alleman (owner and director of Pet Rescue) quite a bit.

Jackie Alleman also sent in a letter to the Editor on 6/20/13.

Since no one from Pet Rescue will talk with me directly, I'd like to respond to her statements from both the article and the letter here.


The article states that "...Pet Rescue’s executive director Jackie Alleman is growing wary of what she sees as unwarranted public scrutiny. She said that the shelter has no legal obligation to host volunteers."

This is true, and also ridiculous. Of course there's no legal obligation to have volunteers. It's also not against the law for Pet Rescue to not vaccinate animals, have a website, advertise adoptable animals, or any number of smart shelter practices that I've already outlined. And if they were a non-profit dealing with used furniture or canned food, no one would care. But they're dealing with living animals, pets, and therefore they have a moral and ethical obligation that has nothing to do with legalities. And what's more, they receive tax dollars and donations, so, yeah, public scrutiny is very much warranted.


It also says, "Alleman argued that the training and supervision involved with hosting volunteers makes it a consuming endeavor for Pet Rescue."

and yet she also says: "Alleman said the shelter no longer lets the dogs out to exercise because they don’t have the time."

I'm sorry that doing your job correctly is time-consuming. If this were a regular business instead of a non-profit, that kind of excuse would get you fired.

Pet rescue "...receives the majority of funding from local government (Umatilla County and the city of Hermiston) ... about $120,000 per year... Alleman said that the shelter prides itself on keeping a tight budget."


"Alleman is no longer a paid employee, but lives on-site and receives about $40,000 per year in rent from the shelter."

"Alleman said she is not one to ask for other people’s money and push for donations for the shelter."

They could probably stretch their dollars a little farther if they weren't paying rent to their own director and also started advertising for donations from the community. I'm sure that $40,000 would more than pay for a part-time volunteer coordinator/trainer, for example. Then they wouldn't have to worry themselves about how "time comsuming" it is to have volunteers do free labor for them.

"Hermiston city manager Ed Brookshier said the shelter’s service is “satisfactory” for the city, adding that currently Pet Rescue is the only option. “Frankly, there is no other service around... some larger counties provide their own shelter but we wouldn’t be able to afford that.”

This is certainly understandable, and I don't think anyone expects the city of Hermiston to open a completely city-run animal shelter. Many, many cities and counties do exactly what Hermiston does and contracts their animal control and sheltering with a private non-profit. It's win-win situation in most cases, as the city doesn't have to fund the entire operation, and a non-profit gets a boost of revenue and legitimacy in the community. It's not some new, revolutionary thing; lots of other shelters are in this exact situation and are doing a much, much better job than Pet Rescue.

"Pet Rescue euthanizes nearly half of the thousands of animals it brings in each year. It’s not something Alleman likes, but she said she could never keep the shelter afloat and help 232 dogs and 67 cats get adopted in the last year if they didn’t turn to euthanasia. '“We have to make hard decisions every day,”' Alleman said. “If we didn’t, this shelter would have shut down 19 years ago."

Is it a hard decision to utilize free online advertising? Is it a hard decision to call other rescues in the area when your shelter is full and you plan to euthanize a healthy animal? Is it a hard decision to ask for donations from the public to keep the shelter "afloat"? Is it a hard decision to stop paying yourself $40,000 in rent and instead use that money to save more of the animals you claim you "have to" kill? Is it a hard decision to spend 10 extra minutes per animal to get a good photograph to help market them more effectively? Is it a hard decision to follow any of the best practices for animal shelters that are listed online for free?

In her letter to the editor, Alleman says:

"Suzanne complains in the article ... that she doesn’t see Pet Rescue in the community. We provide tours for girl scout, boy scout and youth groups. We provide pet education classes in the local school districts. We’ve set up a booth at the Good Shepherd Family Education day and handed out information and goodies for 4 or more years now. We’ve had entries in the Hermiston parade. This last year we provided 1300 lbs of dog and cat food for families and seniors citizens that need temporary emergency help. Every year we mentor high school seniors that are interested in animal care as a profession. If Suzanne hasn’t seen us, I guess we don’t hang out in the same places."


All good stuff. Why not do more?

Suzanne is not the only person who doesn't see them in the community. They need to "hang out" in more places, more often, to get more positive exposure. That leads to more adoptions and more pet lives saved.

(And, as a side note for perspective, 1300 lbs of food, while commendable, isn't all that much - it amounts to 33, forty-pound bags of dog food. In an entire year. Fuzz Ball Animal Rescue, which has an extremely small budget (in the hundreds of dollars range) and only a handful of volunteers, managed to give out about 300 lbs of food in 2012. Pet Rescue should be able to do a lot more.)




Alleman says: "We vaccinate high risk animals when they enter our shelter, but then we still have to wait at least 10 days for the shot to have the optimum effect. We have found that one of the best ways for our shelter to keep germs at bay, besides cleaning and disinfecting daily, is to keep dog to dog exposure at a minimum. So this precludes us from letting all the animals run together. 

While it's true that not overcrowding cuts down on the disease transmission risk, as long as dogs share air space, the risk is there. Vaccinating for parvo upon intake is considered best practice by every expert in the field of animal sheltering. Vaccines are inexpensive: between $1-$5 per animal when purchased by a non-profit. There is no reason not to vaccinate all healthy-looking animals upon intake.

"We have volunteers come and walk dogs nearly every day we are open."

This directly contradicts what she told the reporter in the earlier article.



Alleman then starts blaming the public for the inadequacies of her organization: "I cannot express enough the importance of spaying and neutering your pets. I believe the key is to encourage more responsibility from pet owners. .. We believe that the best use of Pet Rescue's resources is to help pet owners become responsible by letting them invest in their own pets spay or neuter and vet care and Pet Rescue encouraging that, by providing assistance as needed. 

How does encouraging OTHER people to spay and neuter their pets help YOU get better at adopting out animals? It's blame-shifting, pure and simple.

"Don’t lash out at the shelters, who are trying to clean up the mess of overpopulation."

There is no such thing as pet "overpopulation". The statistics are readily available. There are, in fact, more than enough homes for every shelter animal, they just have to be marketed properly. And voicing valid criticisms with a goal to improve and save lives is not "lashing out".

"We are thankful to Washington State University and their excellent vet program ... for spaying and neutering at least 25 animals per year for adoption from our shelter."


That's great. But why isn't this advertised somewhere in the community (like on a website) to get more positive exposure for both the shelter AND the university? And why stop there? If you're having difficulty getting local vets to do free spay/neuters, get creative. Build a surgery suite onsite; Vets are usually much more willing to volunteer their time if it's not at their facility and they don't have to do set up or clean up. $40,000 would more than pay for a surgery table, instruments packs, and autoclave. Just sayin'.

 "HSEO/Pet Rescue reunites approximately 10 dogs a month with their lost owners and provides a centrally located facility for folks to check for their stray animal."

I'm confused by the way this is phrased - Alleman is just describing what they're paid by the city to do as if they're doing it for free out of the goodness of their hearts? It's a great idea to advertise and celebrate every stray that is returned to its owner, but this is merely the bare minimum that a shelter should be doing.



"Pet Rescue maintains an inventory of approx. 60 animals to provide the best assortment for those who are looking to adopt an animal. And any business-person knows that you keep your inventory healthy and marketable."

These are actually good ways of looking at things. Many in the rescue community disagree with me on this, but I and others believe that treating animal rescues as businesses and rescue animals as "products" helps to save lives because it puts us in the mind-set of doing everything we can to help animals get out of the shelter alive. Except that one of the main points of this website is that Pet Rescue doesn't have good business sense. They miss so many opportunities to advertise their product, keep their product healthy and marketable, save/make money, and engender a positive image in the community (their customers). Alleman isn't a good business person, that's the whole point of trying to get her to improve!



"Also, I assume, any successful business-person knows that he must sell his inventory at market prices."

She probably mentions this because so many people have complained about the high adoption prices; although there are no set prices for pets from HSEO, some non-altered, non-vaccinated dogs have sold for hundreds of dollars. Adoption prices are controversial but it's my opinion that Pet Rescue's are higher than they need to be, especially when they aren't investing that much in each animal (not spaying or vaccinating in many cases).

"I am happy that Suzanne found a place to volunteer her time. And I am sure, with her efforts, her statement, “the dogs are not overpopulated, just under marketed,” her new shelter will be empty soon."

Ooo, a little passive-aggressiveness. Nice.

"... as in politics, there are many ways to provide services and care for the abandoned and stray animals that are out there in our community. Our current policies are what works for us..."

But they're NOT working. That's the point. At best, they're barely adequate. They could be so much better, and so many more lives could be saved.

... 500 animals that come through our door each year. .. adopting more than 260 shelter dogs per year and reuniting about 120 with their owners.

There's conflicting statistics: in the EO article, it said "thousands" of animals, not 500. But anyway, again, why aren't these happy tails advertised somewhere?

I've said this many times, but since I'm being bad-mouthed but some people about my motivations, it bears repeating: My goal in voicing these criticisms is to help improve the Humane Society of Eastern Oregon/Pet Rescue. If there were another, nicer, less public way of getting the management to shape up and come into 21st century animal-sheltering, I'd do it. I know personally, and from talking with many other people, that the community's concerns and suggestions have been ignored for years. Sometimes public shaming is the only way to get people out of their rut.

An article worth noting

"Former MAS Employee Convicted of Animal Cruelty"
http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/another-former-mas-employee-convicted-of-animal-cruelty/

Just put out there as an example for interested parties. Even animal shelter employees are not exempt from animal cruelty laws. If there are witnesses willing to come forward, such abusers can indeed face jail time.

Update on trying to get some questions answered

On June 6 2013, I sent a follow-up email to the Pet Rescue email asking about my original email and if I could expect a response soon. I received a reply that day from Jackie Alleman, (from her personal email account, not Pet Rescue's, which strikes me as a bit odd). She said:

"We would love to set up a time you can come by and I can answer your questions for you.  You can contact me at..." and then gave her personal email and phone number (again, odd).

I emailed her a day and time, she emailed back and said she couldn't make that time and she offered an alternative. I emailed back and offered to meet the next afternoon.

There wasn't a response from her after that.

However, on 6/21/13, Beau Putnam emailed me from the Pet Rescue email address. Here is our brief exchange:

This was probably a response to an East Oregonian newspaper article from 6/17/13 that interviewed me about my (and the communities') issues with Pet Rescue.

Also take a look at the Facebook page for the East Oregonin from 6/18/13. There are comments from the community about their experiences with Pet Rescue, and many are negative and reflect what I've heard from people before.

Strangely, though Alleman hasn't responded to me directly, she posted a lengthy letter to the editor after the EO article came out. It's directed at me specifically, though she never told me about it: a friend had to point it out to me or I wouldn't have known it existed:


June 20, 2013
Dear Editor,
I’d like to publicly apologize to Suzanne Phillips for not finding her a time at Humane Society of Eastern Oregon/Pet Rescue Non-profit Shelter to volunteer. As we have many volunteers each week and eagerly find tasks for them to do, I can only imagine that there was a misunderstanding between her and our staff. Pet Rescue will set policy so we can improve each volunteer experience, without adding undue liability or risk to our volunteer or HSEO/Pet Rescue.

Suzanne complains in the article (East Oregonian, Tuesday, June 18) that she doesn’t see Pet Rescue in the community. We provide tours for girl scout, boy scout and youth groups. We provide pet education classes in the local school districts. We’ve set up a booth at the Good Shepherd Family Education day and handed out information and goodies for 4 or more years now. We’ve had entries in the Hermiston parade. This last year we provided 1300 lbs of dog and cat food for families and seniors citizens that need temporary emergency help. Every year we mentor high school seniors that are interested in animal care as a profession. If Suzanne hasn’t seen us, I guess we don’t hang out in the same places.

Unfortunately, the bulk of animals that come to pet rescue through government agencies are strays. That means they have had unknown care and their mental stress and physical health is compromised. So each dog we take in, threatens the health of the other animals in the shelter with the germs it carries. It is very common for animal shelters to constantly deal with diseases such as parvo and kennel cough and we do too. We vaccinate high risk animals when they enter our shelter, but then we still have to wait at least 10 days for the shot to have the optimum effect. We have found that one of the best ways for our shelter to keep germs at bay, besides cleaning and disinfecting daily, is to keep dog to dog exposure at a minimum. So this precludes us from letting all the animals run together. We have volunteers come and walk dogs nearly every day we are open. We will review this policy again and strive to improve the facilities of the shelter to allow individual dogs more exercise time.

I cannot express enough the importance of spaying and neutering your pets. I believe the key is to encourage more responsibility from pet owners. Don’t lash out at the shelters, who are trying to clean up the mess of overpopulation. Motivating pet owners with proper licenses and fees is one way. We believe that the best use of Pet Rescue's resources is to help pet owners become responsible by letting them invest in their own pets spay or neuter and vet care and Pet Rescue encouraging that, by providing assistance as needed. We are continually looking for ideas that will help provide these services to families without taking away their commitment to provide for their own animal. We are thankful to Washington State University and their excellent vet program (which some of our local vets are alumni) for spaying and neutering at least 25 animals per year for adoption from our shelter.

I’d like to mention that HSEO/Pet Rescue reunites approximately 10 dogs a month with their lost owners and provides a centrally located facility for folks to check for their stray animal. Each city sets their own fine or deterrent for picking up a lost animal and those funds collected from grateful families go back to the government agencies. The animals that are not claimed within 5 days (Oregon State require only 3) are then evaluated and put up for adoption. Aggressive, severely injured and sick animals must be euthanized. The rest of these animals become the inventory of Pet Rescue. Pet Rescue maintains an inventory of approx. 60 animals to provide the best assortment for those who are looking to adopt an animal. And any business-person knows that you keep your inventory healthy and marketable. To think that we don’t weigh seriously the hard decisions of euthanasia, haven’t managed a business with inventory. Also, I assume, any successful business-person knows that he must sell his inventory at market prices. We believe, the price of the investment in the animal does more to ensure a safe, loving, forever home than an intrusive and judgmental home visit. But again, our board will continue to revisit this policy.

In addition, I want to thank the amazing folks in this area for their good wishes and financial and verbal support they continually give us, from the first years to today, and even through this scrutiny by the East Oregonian Newspaper. People of Umatilla and Morrow County have had the vision to support a shelter of our kind for 2 decades. We will strive to manage the resources wisely these good people grant us to provide a shelter they can be proud of.

I am happy that Suzanne found a place to volunteer her time. And I am sure, with her efforts, her statement, “the dogs are not overpopulated, just under marketed,” her new shelter will be empty soon. I know the hard work that each shelter director down to kennel cleaner puts in every day. And, as in politics, there are many ways to provide services and care for the abandoned and stray animals that are out there in our community. We welcome new agencies with their opinions on animal care, to help with this challenging problem. We will even help you succeed as much as we are able. Our current policies are what works for us and this end of Umatilla and Morrow County and the 500 animals that come through our door each year. And with a little tweeking of guidelines here and there, we have stayed in business for over 20 years now, adopting more than 260 shelter dogs per year and reuniting about 120 with their owners. With no huge grant or government agency money to build us a shelter, my mother, Gay Van Schoiack, took her husband’s life insurance policy and built a building, cleaned the kennels and paid the bills, month after month, because that was the level of her commitment to the animals and this community. Humane Society of Eastern Oregon/Pet Rescue will continue her commitment and legacy.

Sincerely, Jackie Alleman
Director of Humane Society of Eastern Oregon /Pet Rescue
1844 NW Geer Rd, Hermiston, OR 97838


I'll respond to this letter in another post.

Pet Rescue avoids answering questions from the public?

One of the biggest red flags with Pet Rescue is their lack of transparency. There is almost no information online about the organization. Their policies, goals, mission statement, financial information, shelter statistics, even something as simple as the names and duties of the board members is all a mystery. And considering the many allegations of poor practices and downright abuse, many people in Hermiston are concerned that such a lack of transparency is just a sign of corruption and an attempt to hide shady dealings from the public.

On May 27 2013, I sent an email to the Humane Society of Eastern Oregon with a list of 18 questions (see below). The next day, Jackie Alleman (the president of Pet Rescue) sent a Facebook message to my employer stating that she thought some of the questions were "confrontational" but that she would "compile that information as soon as possible". It was inappropriate for her to contact my employer in any way: my questions were sent from my personal email on a weekend day and there was no information in the email that pointed to where I worked and in fact none of the questions had anything to do with where I worked; I was asking them as a concerned citizen. She would have had to search my name on the internet to even figure out that information, and I find that unprofessional and downright strange.


But the bigger point is: I have yet to recieve a response of any kind.

Here are the questions I sent:

Hi, since I moved here a few years ago, I've heard a lot of negative rumors circulating about Pet Rescue, and I was hoping you could answer a few questions. The Humane Society of Eastern Oregon is the largest shelter in the entire region, and I really want to give you the benefit of the doubt.

1) It's difficult to find information about your organization online. Can you tell me the names, and duties of the board of directors (and any paid staff) for Pet Rescue?

2) Do you have yearly statistics for  things like: number of animals that you took in, number adopted, number of return adoptions, number and reason for euthanasias, etc? And if so, is it published somewhere or can you send it to me?

3) I've heard from several people that you've adopted animals to friends or family members who then used the animals for breeding purposes, is this true?

4) Do you utilize foster homes? How many foster homes do you currently have?

5) Every time I visit the shelter, I never see any volunteers working (walking dogs, manning the front desk, cleaning, answering phones, etc). Pretty much the only person I've seen there is Beau Putnam. How many volunteers do you currently have coming on, say, at least a weekly basis? How often are dogs walked during the day?  Is there a fenced play area nearby where dogs can play off leash?

6) What kind of contract(s) do you have with local municipalities, which cities/counties do you contract with, and what are your specific (contracted) duties? How much money do the cities/counties pay you for these contracts?

7) How long do you typically hold a stray/found animal before offering it for adoption or euthanizing?

8) I think that euthanasias are performed in the shelter building, but I've heard that they're done in the cat room in front of all the cats. Is this true? Is there a certified euthanasia tech on staff?

9) The last time I visited the shelter, there were no toys or bedding in any of the dog runs, are the dogs provided with any toys or bedding at any time during the day?

10) The last time I visited the shelter, there were healthy cats in cages very close to cats with an obvious URI. Do you ever separate or quarantine obviously sick animals from the healthy ones?

11) Do you vaccinate animals upon intake? All of the Pet Rescue adoptions paperwork I've seen show that you either don't vaccinate at all, or only vaccinate the day an animal is adopted.

12) Sometimes I've seen some very nice, obviously professional photos of adoptable animals on the Pet Finder website, but most of the time the photos are very poor quality. Is there a photographer who volunteers sometimes, and if so, why doesn't he or she take all the photos for marketing purposes?

13) I've also noticed that almost all the entries on the Pet Finder page under "adopted" animals (aka the "Happy Tails") have been deleted (normally Petfinder keeps them up forever as good publicity for the shelter). Why is that?

14) I've also noticed on Petfinder that the postings for adoptable animals almost never have a description or much information on each animal, even for pets that have been listed for days or weeks. Why is that? Who puts up the Petfinder listings? Do you ever have volunteers do this?

15) Why does Pet Rescue not have its own website?

16) Are there written protocols or SOP's for shelter operations and policies? And if so, can you send them to me?

17) What kind of software/record-keeping do you use at the shelter to keep track of animal ID's, intakes, adoptions, etc?

18) Which veterinarian(s) do you typically use for shelter animals?

I understand that was a lot of questions, but these things concern me and others in the community. Thank you for your time in answering them.

Today I sent a follow up email. We'll see if they respond.

Marketing of Adoptable Animals: Photography and Descriptions

One of the most important (and easy and cheap) ways to market adoptable animals is to have a good photo and description.

Why it's important.

Most shelters are lucky enough to have at least one volunteer who is a professional photographer or serious hobbyist. But even if they don't, anyone can take a decent photo, even with a camera phone: It simply needs to be well-lit, with an uncluttered background, in focus, and catching the animal looking relaxed and happy. This might take a few more minutes than simply snapping a shot of the animal coming in the shelter door, but it can make all the difference in the world.

Take for example, these screen shots from the first page of the Petfinder page of Humane Society of Eastern Oregon from May 30 2013:

Jack and Butterscotch have been up for adoption for at least a week, and yet no one has taken decent photos of them. The photos are poorly lit, poorly focused, and the dogs look scared and stressed. Not the best image if you want to showcase an animal. And if a potential adopter clicks through to read more about these dogs, they don't have any description on their pages:

The only information we get is the breed, gender, and adoption fee. Nothing about the dog's history, personality, energy level, or suitability with children and other pets. Certainly, an interested adopter could call the shelter to get this information, but why put up yet another barrier to adoption when it takes only a few minutes to make this information easily available to the public? And these dogs have been at the shelter for over a week. That is plenty of time for a volunteer to spend some time getting to the know the dog and write a brief description in Petfinder.

A good, brief description of animal anywhere he/she is being advertised: Name, aprox. age, weight, or adult size if it's a baby, maybe a sentence or two of background history, 1-3 sentences on personality, and a cute quirk that will help the animal stand out a bit. End the description with the contact info for the shelter so that interested adopters don't have to go searching for it, it's all right there and they can call or email the shelter within seconds of becoming interested.


I've had this job myself for a couple of the rescues I volunteer for. Petfinder's interface is simple and easy to use. This is an excellent task for volunteers, and takes only a few minutes to set up, take the photos, and upload them to the website.

Being very generous, let's say it takes a total of 30 minutes of time per animal to evaluate them, take a decent photo, upload it, and write a description. There's only 11 animals on the Petfinder page, that's only 5 1/2 hours. A single volunteer could knock that out in a day at no cost to the shelter. And if its a task that's made routine by the shelter management, it's something that could easily be kept up to date when new animals are added to the shelter. 30 minutes per animal is not a lot to ask.

We know that Pet Rescue is capable of this photos because the one of Aurora is good! It's well-lit, in focus, uncluttered background, and she's in an eye-catching pose looking at the camera. Not perfect, but clean, happy, and eye catching, which is all you really need.

We also know that Pet Rescue is capable of writing good descriptions, because Duke and Tigger (although their photos are terrible) have them:

Moreover, on May 30 2013, there were only 11 animals listed on the Petfinder page, all of them dogs. I suspect they also have cats and kittens for adoption (they almost always do), and probably more dogs, but I don't know for sure because there is no information about them anywhere online.

All adoptable animals should be advertised, it only makes good marketing sense. The longer it takes to get them adopted, the more money is spent to house them and the more time they spend taking up space that could go to other animals in need.

The internet is just bursting with tips on photographing shelter animals. Here are a few of them:

How to take better photos of shelter pets, step-by-step
How photography can save pets' lives, from Petfinder.com
Ten simple steps that improve animal shelter photos
Taking great photographs of shelter animals
Five non-conventional tips for creating compelling images of shelter animals