What do the US and Australia have in common?

Similar Shelter Statistics Save Rate Deaths per 1,000 Australia 53% 8 US 60% 10

3 Saving all healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats in the US by 2015 is not only possible, it’s probable

Today, U.S. shelters are killing 3 million dogs and cats 4

5 Our Challenge: To save the 2.3M healthy and treatable shelter pets euthanized annually This translates to 4 additional adoptions per group per week! There are 4,000 shelters and 8,000 non-sheltered adoption organizations in the U.S.

U.S. shelter deaths have plummeted since 1970 Shelter Pet DeathsSave Deaths per (Millions)Rate Thousand People % % % 10 Expected ,000 90% 2 Projected 6

National Progress PetPoint Data 7 Data collected from 884 US shelters; Q compared to Q (October through December)

Strategies That Work Adoptions Model programs Marketing Shelter Medicine Transparency and accountability Unified database collection system; common definitions & tables; public reporting 8

Live Release Deaths Per Human Rate 1,000 People Population NW Colorado (4 counties) 97% ,728 Berkeley, CA (4 cities) 94% ,401 Tompkins County, NY 93% ,564 Washoe County, NV 93% ,407 Albemarle County, VA 92% ,445 San Francisco, CA 88% ,235 Lynchburg, VA 84% ,720 Dane County, WI 82% ,073 Richmond, VA 79% ,913 New York City, NY 77% 1.2 8,214,426 Erie County, NY 77% ,040 A growing number of communities are proving it can be done Adoptions: Model Programs 9 In 2010

Adoptions: Marketing The Shelter Pet Project: a national public service ad campaign to promote shelter pet adoptions Key research findings – Only 21% of US pet owners adopted from shelters or rescues in 2004 – Undecided swing voters aren’t adopting due to fear and uncertainty (shelter pets are damaged goods) The campaign aims to target swing voters and overcome their fear and uncertainty by smashing negative stereotypes and proclaiming: there’s nothing wrong with shelter pets 10

Maddie’s® Matchmaker Adoptathon Adoptions: Marketing 2,204 pets placed in 2 days in 2 counties Shattering Myths Too many pets, not enough homes People won’t adopt older or treatable animals 11

Shelter Medicine Ten years ago, there was only one shelter medicine program Today, 24 out of 28 U.S. veterinary schools have shelter medicine programs The number of veterinarians specially trained to keep healthy shelter pets well and treat shelter pets who are sick and injured is growing by leaps and bounds 12

Transparency and Accountability: Asilomar Accords Unified database collection system; common definitions & tables 13

Transparency and Accountability: Maddie’s Comparative Database Public reporting of statistics 14

Heidi Collaborations Marketing Shelter Medicine Shelter Statistics 15