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Richard Glessner,
Quad City Animal Welfare Center
Richard Glessner became the Executive Director of Quad City Animal Welfare Center in 1998.
History
The Center today
The long-range plan
Working with animal control
Operating as a business
The Quad City Animal Welfare Center is a 7500-square-foot no-kill animal shelter which serves the Iowa and Illinois communities of Bettendorf, Davenport, Moline and Rock Island. Founded in 1977, the center began as a no-kill shelter, a true grass-roots effort organized by a small group of people determined to improve animal welfare in the Quad Cities. Our shelter began in a small 1100-square-foot renovated garage with the primary goal of providing an adoption and spay/neuter program. Spay and neuter surgeries were performed in a small camping trailer that sat alongside our shelter. In 1996 we constructed a new facility on our property and razed the original shelter after the move.
One of the major hurdles when I began was that our Board of Directors then handled about seventy-five percent of the operational aspects of the shelter. In addition to the enormous burden this placed on our Directors, it strained our resources and prevented growth. When I accepted the position of Executive Director, my primary goal was to relieve the Board of Directors of daily operational responsibilities so that they could focus on long-range planning and our financial security. The Directors moved into their new role and formulated appropriate goals and objectives. I took on the operational responsibilities and structured a business plan to help reach our goals.
Our annual operating budget was approximately $90,000 when I became Director and we employed a staff of eight. At that point, our shelter accepted and adopted between 1,100 and 1,200 animals annually. This was the average for many years and growth was minimal.
The Center Today
Today, our shelter's current annual budget is $425,000 and we now employ 16 people. We accepted and adopted 1,500 animals in the year 2000, a 40% increase over 1999's adoptions. Dog adoptions have grown a remarkable 75%, from 550 to 850.
We accept animals from two primary sources. Approximately 50% of our animals are rescued from local animal control shelters on a weekly basis, the remaining 50% are accepted as owner surrenders.
Our shelter places virtually 100% of the animals accepted. Since I became Director, we have euthanized fewer than 10 animals, all due to terminal illnesses. Our shelter also assumes the responsibility for injured animals in our community. Working with animal control shelters, the Animal Emergency Clinic and our veterinarian, we accept between 10-20 animals annually whose injuries are not terminal. The animals range from those hit by cars to victims of abuse or neglect often requiring a surgical procedure. All animals are rehabilitated, often over several months, and then placed into loving homes.
Even during our humble beginnings, our founders knew the vital importance of spaying and neutering. In addition to spaying or neutering each animal we accept, we have offered a low cost spay and neuter program to our community. We currently are performing over 1,500 surgeries in addition to each of the shelter's animals each year. We contract with a veterinarian to perform these surgeries on a fee per animal basis in our shelter clinic. By keeping 20% of the fees charged to the public, we are able to provide this public service without any out-of-pocket cost to the shelter.
The Long Range Plan
Today we are working on a Long Range Plan that consists of three primary objectives. Our first was to build a new facility to care for the current population of animals. Our second is to focus on our spay and neuter efforts and humane education. Our third objective is to become a no-kill community.
We are currently working on our second objective, searching for ways to dramatically improve our spay and neuter efforts and our educational programs.
This year we have increased our spay and neuter surgeries to the public from one day a week to two, and are currently negotiating to increase this to four a week. Our goal is to increase our surgeries to 5,000 annually by the end of 2003 and then to 10,000 within 5 years.
We completed our Education Center last year and have hired a full-time Community Services Director to develop and administer the Educational Program as well as our Volunteer Program and our marketing. Through this effort we will be in each of our schools' classrooms and offer programs to a large variety of groups of people, both children and adults, to stress the importance of responsible pet ownership.
We have searched for new ways to improve our programs. We created a website that is visited by approximately 200 unique visitors daily and has been seen by visitors in over 50 foreign countries. Our website incorporates a printable adoption form and as a result our adoptions have increased. We have placed animals throughout Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri. The Office Manager reviews the application by phone and if approved, arrangements are made for transportation. This is usually done by car or truck. We will work with any potential adopter to place a pet utilizing any method of transportation, including air travel. Our adoption policies are lengthy and we utilize this opportunity to educate potential adopters; it is our first priority to ensure the animal's best interest.
One obstacle we faced was judging those who are interested in adopting. But we have come to realize that when you deny an adoption, you are denying another animal the right to live. This fact should be used as a standard for all adoptions. Our staff ask themselves if it is worth another animal giving its life to deny an adoption.
Working With Animal Control
Like so many other communities we are faced with the challenge of uniting all of our animal control agencies. Our community is located on the border between Iowa and Illinois and the natural barrier of the state lines inadvertently creates a working barrier with a number of organizations. We are no exception. While we have had an exceptional working relationship with all of the animal control shelters located in the Illinois Quad Cities, there has been a non-existent relationship with the Iowa Animal Control and Humane Society organizations. This exists due in part to the laws regarding transporting animals across state lines, the variation in state and city ordinances and unfortunately an animosity between traditional and no-kill shelters that dates back many years.
Today we are working toward improving this relationship. We publicly support all efforts to improve animal welfare and under no circumstances will we publicly condemn any other animal welfare agency or organization designed to improve animal welfare. Our community must work together to solve the pet overpopulation problem and if we are successful, then and only then will we become a community that can guarantee a loving home for every adoptable pet.
I often hear that no-kill shelters do not work cooperatively with their animal control shelters. We promote our shelter as a supplement to our local animal controls, working with them to provide the services and programs which they are not able to provide. No-kill shelters that have no grasp of their mission, their capabilities and their role within their community often are those shelters operated on emotions. These shelters in the end harm animal welfare and jeopardize the no-kill movement.
Operating as a Business
Our success is derived from operating our shelter as a business. I continually evaluate our operations. I believe that any director of a shelter should know the vital statistics of his or her shelter, including capacity and budgets. This provides you with a current picture of your organization and is imperative for success. Knowing the statistics, you can foresee potential problems and take corrective measures. I am amazed at the number of shelter managers or directors who have no idea how many animals are in their shelter, what their capacity is, how many animals they adopt, or what their annual budget is. Inevitably these shelters are usually plagued with problems that are common among many shelters: divided boards, lack of funding and over-crowdedness.
I have witnessed many shelters that accept animals beyond their capacity. This burdens the staff and volunteers, strains the organization's financial resources and diminishes the quality of life for the animals. It is crucial to set policies and procedures in writing and adhere to them, to set limitations and maintain them and not give way to emotions. I believe that emotions are often based on the human aspects of a situation and not in the best interest of the animal.
At the Quad City Animal Welfare Center, we continually self-evaluate our programs and policies and we have worked at achieving our goals by being willing to accept new ideas and concepts. Our Board of Directors has grown to include community leaders and professionals who bring quality skills and talents to our organization. A dedicated staff and quality volunteers administer our daily operations. We invested in increased wages to attract quality employees, thus reducing turnover and improving the quality of care given to our animals. Operating our shelter as a business with a professional Board of Directors and a quality staff of employees administering our goals, objectives, policies and procedures, we have built a successful organization that attracts donors and supporters.
About the author: Prior to becoming Executive Director at Quad City Animal Welfare Center (QCAWC), Richard served as the Development Coordinator for a residential treatment facility. At the same time, he volunteered on the QCAWC capital campaign committee to help raise funds for Quad City's new shelter. He was later elected to the QCAWC Board of Directors but resigned to accept his current position as Executive Director. Richard began working in the animal welfare movement during an Army tour. Assigned to the Commanding General of Southern Europe and posted in Italy, Richard volunteered weekly at an animal refuge in Pisa.
Richard Glessner -
Executive Director, Quad City Animal Welfare Center
724 West Second Avenue - Milan, IL 61264 - 309-787-6830
rich@qcawc.org - www.qcawc.org
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