Animal Control Articles 

Free to Roam: A Small City's New Policy that Saves Feline Lives and Tax Payer Money

May 2013
Healthy community cats are no longer accepted at the municipal animal shelter in Chico, California, and the change has led to more lives – and dollars – saved.  Read More

Shelter Veterinarian Takes on Challenge at Beleaguered Texas Animal Control Agency

May 2013
Former shelter medicine resident Dr. Cate McManus is using her expertise to help change the management practices at a municipal animal control facility and double the shelter’s live release rate.  Read More

How to Sell Policymakers on Fee-Waived Adoption

May 2013
It’s been proven that free pet adoptions save lives, but some communities prohibit the practice. Animal advocates in Alachua County, Florida persuaded their County Commissioners to change their restrictive policy with patience, personal relationships, research and statistics.  Read More

Cats by Appointment Only

March 2013
The SPCA Serving Erie County has dramatically reduced cat admissions and eliminated overcrowding and severe disease outbreaks with its cats by appointment policy – worries about an angry public, bad press and an increase in cat abandonment haven’t materialized.  Read More

Reducing Shelter Admissions with an Animal Help Desk

March 2013
Sixty percent of the callers who wanted to surrender one or more pets were convinced to try alternatives as a result of Nevada Humane Society’s free Animal Help Desk.  Read More

Feline Shelter Intake Reduction Program FAQs

January 2013
Is it a good idea to stop admitting community cats into shelters? Yes, if admission equals death. That's the view of two of the nation’s acknowledged leaders on community cat health and policy, the University of Florida’s Julie Levy, DVM and UC Davis’ Kate Hurley, DVM.  Read More

Expanding Lifesaving Despite Slashed Budgets Editorial

March 2012
Maddie's Fund President Rich Avanzino has some unexpected ideas on how to forge ahead with lifesaving progress when animal control budgets are cut.  Read More

Using Data to Make Austin a No-Kill City

March 2012
Today, Austin has a save rate of 91%. That wasn’t the case just four years ago when 44% of the animals coming into the Austin Animal Center were losing their lives. Dr. Ellen Jefferson recounts how she used the shelter’s data to figure out bottlenecks in the system and develop and fine-tune programs to fill in the gaps.  Read More

Moving from a Traditional to a No-Kill Shelter

2007
Bonney Brown describes her journey of transitioning a traditional humane society into a no-kill facility.  Read More

Getting Control of Animal Control

2007
Craig Brestrup describes the sad conditions and high death rates in one animal control facility and offers concrete steps on how this city and others can turn the situation around.  Read More

Honesty and Transparency in Animal Control: A Formula for Lifesaving

2006
Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association, Tara Derby details the steps she took to radically improve her shelter's live release rate in very short order.  Read More

Indianapolis Animal Care & Control

2006
New managerial tactics bring new hope to Indianapolis.  Read More