Video Length: 16 minutes
Learn about the Austin's progressive program that returns community cats who enter the city shelter as strays back to their environment after spay/neuter. This workshop will give you the details of the program from intake to release. Presented by Jordan Craig and Jennifer Smith, this program was part of the American Pets Alive! 2015 No-Kill Conference.
Jordan Craig grew up in a family with numerous animal companions and with parents who fostered her passion for animal welfare. She graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a focus on primate evolution, morphology and behavior and minors in Animal Behavior and Spanish. While attending Indiana University, Jordan became involved in the local wildlife rehabilitation center, Wildcare Inc., where she learned about proper animal handling and rehabilitation. She worked with the Peregrine Fund in 2010 and helped to safely release 12 juvenile Aplomado falcons in Southern New Mexico. After moving to Austin, Texas, she began her career with domestic animal welfare. She has been employed with Austin Animal Services since 2010, and she became involved in the Stray Cat Return Program in 2012. Jordan shares her home with three pampered shelter rescues who make each day more interesting and rewarding, and she also helps support a colony of feral cats in her neighborhood.
Jennifer Smith grew up in an animal loving family and was crawling around with dogs before she was old enough to walk. Her career with animals started in a small pet shop near her home town where she learned about exotic animals and aquatic life. After gaining animal knowledge and management experience, she moved from there to a national pet store chain where she was an Operations Manager. After a total of five years in the retail pet industry, Jennifer made the worthwhile transition to working in animal welfare and began her career with Austin Animal Center. She supervises the Customer Service team (intake, adoption, reclaim) as well as the SCRP, Rescue, Foster, and Offsite adoption programs. Jennifer is currently pursuing her Humane Investigator Certification through the Law Enforcement Training Institute (LETI), an extension of the University of Missouri, so she can improve processes within Austin Animal Center to better prevent animal cruelty and also pursue cruelty investigations in the community.