Manatee’s Journey to No-Kill: April Update

Manatee’s Journey to No-Kill – April Update

Four absolutely momentous things happened during March (and very early April) of this year.

1.  We reached the 82% save rate! Eighty-two percent of the dogs and cats that come into Animal Services stay alive.  That is amazing, since we started at only a 55% save rate. Looked at in the more impactful way, we were killing 45% of all animals that came into Animal Services, and now we are killing only 18%.  Of course we all agree that while 18% is one of the lowest kill rates in the nation, it still is too high.  The goal is 91% by December. 

2.  The downtown Bradenton Animal Services Adoption Center opened!  Yes, there has been a small adoption center there for about a year, but here’s the difference: The small one could hold about eight dogs and maybe ten cats, but all animals had to be transported every day back and forth from the Palmetto Animal Services location.  Now the greatly expanded adoption center can hold thirty-something dogs and all of the adoptable cats!  And they stay there all the time. No daily transportation to stress out both the animals and the Animal Services staff.

They are still working out the kinks of having all those dogs and cats in the downtown building.  There are ventilation issues as well as exercise for the dogs issues since there are no outside runs downtown.  Everyone, members of the public and Manatee County employees are SO welcome to come walk these wonderful dogs every day. The runs are small and they do get stressed without daily exercise.

Having the downtown adoption center will make it much easier for the public to come see and adopt the animals.  The downtown center will have adoption events and probably will become, in some form, part of the downtown Farmer’s Markets.

3.  Commissioner Carol Whitmore, who has been the political leader of the No-Kill movement in Manatee County, won a $50,000 grant from the Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation as a Community Hero.  In large part it was because of her work with No-Kill. The grant recipient pass on the money to local non-profits.  Commissioner Whitmore gave $40,000 of her grant to The Animal Network to be used for No-Kill, and especially for the medical needs of the dogs and cats.  Hurray for Commissioner Whitmore!  This is an award that is not about politics, but about a giving heart.

4.  The No-Kill movement has reached Broward County!  It was announced in yesterday’s news that the Broward County Commission is following the lead of Manatee County and plans to become the second county in Florida to become No-Kill. Yes, we are leaders in this State. 

And so the work goes on.  We are helping Hillsborough County to become No-Kill.  On April 14, they are having a big event which they hope will be attended by some of their County Commissioners.  Kris Weiskopf, head of our Animal Services, will be the keynote speaker. He will talk about how we in Manatee County went about becoming a No-Kill community.  Here is the information on the event.

Event: Alliance to Save 90 HCC Conference
Date: Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 1:00 PM (ET)
Location:
Hillsborough Community College, Dale Mabry Campus
4001 West Tampa Bay Boulevard
Student Services Building, Room 111
Tampa, FL 33614

For more information click here:
April 14 Alliance to Save 90 HCC Conference

I greatly encourage you all to attend this momentous event.  Wouldn’t it be great to have our neighbors to the north become No-Kill too?  And I also say, “Let’s go Sarasota!  Where are you?”

So that's it for March 2011.  Quite a month, yes?