As you know, each of our pets was adopted at local pet rescue–and our most recent adoption, our cat Lucky, was from Austin Pets Alive! This amazing rescue has helped make Austin the country’s largest no-kill city. A special program by Austin Pets Alive! helps take its unique programs national with American Pets Alive! Today we’re excited to have a guest post from Margot McClelland, the American Pets Alive! Conference Coordinator, about the group’s upcoming conference:
Can you imagine America becoming a No Kill Nation? American Pets Alive! can and it is our mission. AmPA! is dedicated to making America No-Kill by hosting a yearly National Conference that shares Austin Pets Alive!’s innovative No-Kill programs to educate rescues and communities across the country on how to adopt our methods and end the unnecessary killing of companion animals.
Too often, animal welfare agencies witness many animals going in to shelters and not enough getting out. There are different excuses like “Costs too much to save them all”, “Not enough homes”, “These animals are not adoptable”, or “What else are we to do with the animals we cannot adopt or rescue out besides humanely put them down?”. Many who are trying to save so many pets finally grow accustom to these excuses and start to believe they are valid. If there isn’t a resource out there for people to follow, how can anyone know any different?
Austin was faced with the same circumstances, their city shelter was stuck around 50% live release rate. While several resources were going into prevention and reducing intake, there was no effort to increase live outcomes from the shelter. Austin Pets Alive! saw that gap and created programs to save the key demographics of pets that hadn’t been making it out of their municipal shelter alive: puppies with parvovirus, dogs with behavior challenges, cats with Ringworm, FeLV+ cats, unweaned kittens, under socialized cats, dogs and cats in need of additional behavioral support and/or additional medical attention. By developing comprehensive, innovative programs that targeted these key groups of animals and pulling directly from euthanasia lists, Austin Pets Alive! has saved more than 35,000 dogs and cats since 2008. This year, Austin celebrated their 5th year as remaining the largest No-Kill City in the nation.
Austin Pets Alive! is in a key position to help other rescues, organizations and communities across the country since they are some of the leaders in the No-Kill Movement and have five years of proven No-Kill success under their belts. For this reason, Austin Pets Alive! developed American Pets Alive! and decided to create a yearly National No-Kill Conference to show American how attainable No-Kill is. This year marks our 6th Annual No Kill National Conference and we are excited to announce we will be partnering with Austin’s city shelter Austin Animal Center. It is crucial that AmPA! & AAC show attendees just how imperative a friendly and cohesive relationship between a city shelter and rescue is in order to remain No-Kill (or in this instance, the largest No-Kill City in the country).
We know there are lots of animal welfare conferences, but there is only one conference with one, single objective: teaching you exactly how to save more lives.The AmPA! Conference was started with a clear purpose, in just three days, YOU can learn what what otherwise may take months or years. At AmPA!, you’ll leave with detailed, proven strategies to stop killing in your community. Whether you’re a shelter director employee, a volunteer, foster or community advocate, you’ll go home with the tools and knowledge to make immediate change. Here in Austin, we have the benefit of five years of proven No-Kill Success and we will show you how to same them all because we have the answers!
We are thrilled to announce Maddie’s Fund and Farm Animal Foundation will be sponsors for this years conference. If you are interested in a sponsorship opportunity for the 6th Annual AmPA! No Kill National Conference, email American Pets Alive! at info@americanpetsalive.org.
We look forward to seeing YOU at the conference! Your attendance means America will be one step closer to creating a No-Kill Nation.
AmPA! National Conference will be held on November 5-7, 2016 at the University of Texas Thompson Conference Center in Austin, TX.
For more information on Austin Pets Alive! you can visit us at www.austinpetsalive.org and for information on American Pets Alive! and conference details visit www.americanpetsalive.org or email info@americanpetsalive.org.
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