Keeping Pets in Homes/Habitats 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

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

What You Don’t Know About Lost Pets Can Hurt Them

May 2012
Want to find a lost pet? Whether you’re a shelter worker trying to help a guardian find a missing pet or you’ve lost a pet yourself, the first step to successfully locating a lost pet is to understand how they behave.  Read More

Community Cats: A Shelter Director’s Evolution

August 2012
Once upon a time, Barbara Carr believed feral cats lived short, miserable lives, and the kindest thing she could do for them was put them out of their misery. Today, the director of the Erie County SPCA believes the opposite, and is throwing her organization’s resources into saving their lives, not taking them. Find out how history, research, data, and experience all came together to turn a skeptic into a community cat advocate, and how you can change minds and policy in your region the same way.  Read More

How to Work With Municipalities to Save Community Cats

August 2012
Do you ever feel like your local government agencies and officials just won’t listen when you try to talk to them about progressive community cat policies? Maybe it’s not them, but you. Rick DuCharme of First Coast No More Homeless Pets in Jacksonville, FL, explains how the power of relationships led to one of the nation’s most successful community cat programs, and what steps you need to follow to build effective working relationships with the decision-makers in your community. Hint: It involves doughnuts.  Read More

Alternatives to Relinquishment at the Richmond SPCA

2006
With their Project Safety Program, the Richmond SPCA saves lives and money by keeping pets out of the shelter.  Read More

Pets in Rental Housing

2000
A simple, field-proven seven-step guide that groups or individuals can use to create a program for increasing pet-friendly rental housing in their area.  Read More