Ontario SPCA offers Meet Your Match ™

Meet Your Match™, a program adopted from the ASPCA, confer a series of assessments on sheltered cats and dogs prior to adoption. Behavioral attributes such as friendliness, playfulness, energy level, motivation and drive are all assessed and dogs are then placed into one of nine colour-coded 'Canine or Puppy-alities. 

Meet Your Match™ is the only method in existence today that evaluates an animal's behavior and interests and matches them into an adopter's preferences so that pets and pet families click. 

The Ontario SPCA announced recently it is developing a social media presence behind the Meet Your Match™ program. A new app on the organization's Facebook page allows users to fill out a survey about their pet, provides links to the Canine-ality™, Puppy-ality™ and Feline-ality™ sections of the Meet Your Match™ website and displays the Meet Your Match™ YouTube video starring Animal Planet's Dave Salmoni.  

ONTARIO SPCA MEET YOUR MATCH™

ASPCA MEET YOUR MATCH™

ASPCA Partnership extends to Albuquerque N.M.

An ASPCA initiative is underway to save the lives of more at-risk homeless pets in Albuquerque N.M.

This collaborative effort, called the ASPCA Partnership, includes several organizations and will involve annual planning meetings to determine and monitor goals, strategies and needs; a grant allocation process; and access to ASPCA resources, expertise and guidance as well as strategic planning support, statistical analysis, training and participation in ground-breaking research projects. 

 In 2012, approximately 28,700 homeless animals entered the Albuquerque partner agencies. Aside form overcrowding the shelters, some of the other challenges facing Albuquerque are the need for more lost animals to be reunited with their owners, an increase in targeted spay/neuter, and more pet adoptions. 

Since the ASPCA began its Partnership program in 2007, more than 1 million animals have been adopted, returned to owners or spay/neutered as a result of the exceptional collaboration among partner agencies in each community. For more information and a list of all ASPCA Partnership Communities, CLICK HERE. 

READ THE ALBUQUERQUE NEWS RELEASE

ASPCA launches Moving Animals Places (MAP) Program

An innovative resource aimed at balancing the number of animals in U.S. shelters and increasing adoptions will set new standards for animal homing in the American market. 

Last week, the ASPCA announced the launch of the Moving Animals Places (MAP) Program, an interactive and free web-based map application that will help connect animal shelters across the country. MAP allows participating shelters with surplus animals to find and partner with shelters that have available space and a higher demand for adoptable animals. 

Developed in collaboration with Fujitsu and using technology courtesy of salesforce.com, MAP is designed to allow animal welfare groups to facilitate an increased number of efficient, humane and safe transports. Sandy Monterose, senior director of  community outreach for the ASPCA said, "MAP will also provide the animal sheltering community with a broad picture of the state of animal transport nationally, including trends within the national network." 

To date, there are 175 approved MAP members in 41 states. The MAP Program is open to 501(c)(3) organizations and municipal agencies. Organizations that meet the criteria can begin the registration process by visiting www.aspcapro.org/map.

READ THE NEWS RELEASE

Volunteers create backbone of WestJet Air Angels

A unique collaboration between animal rescue organizations and WestJet Airlines employees has seen the transportation of more than 100 animals across Canada. 

Nearly four years ago, Inge Neilson created Animal Rescue Transportation Society (ARTS) when she recognized a gap in the relocation of shelter animals. ARTS is a network of volunteers who provide ground transportation to animals. Not long after, a handful of WestJet employees jumped on board, using their buddy pass system to accompany the dogs on flights. 

There are now more than 150 WestJet employees involved in the organization. Each relocation trip costs approximately $100 after crate fees that are offset by the accommodating animal societies. 

"Working together is so much more productive and rewarding than working separately," said Neilson. "Because what we can do together is greater than what a single person can do in the community by themselves. I can't tell you how much we depend on our volunteers to keep this going." 

ARTS Air Angels on Facebook

Nova Scotia SPCA and Pets Unlimited recognized for re-homing strategies and offsite adoption partnership

For the third year in a row, the Nova Scotia SPCA received international recognition in the form of a Summit award at the International Summit for Urban Animal Strategies.

As a result of a unique partnership penned between NSSPCA and Pets Unlimited where the Society has become the sole source of animals for the retail outlet, mills in the area have closed, capacity has increased and animal care standards have increased. For this reason, the NSSPCA and Pets Unlimited were awarded the Animal Homing Summit for 2012. 

This Summit, presented by IAMS Canada, seeks to recognize an organization that demonstrates innovation, commitment and extraordinary effort in homing animals through adoption, sale and fostering programs.

Previous awards have been awarded to NSSPCA in the categories of Animal Wellness (2010), Education (2010), Leadership (2010) and Communications (2011). 

The Nova Scotia SPCA received international recognition as recipient of the Animal Homing Award at the International Summit for Urban Animal Strategies, held recently in Alberta. The Society was recognized for its innovative re-homing strategies and offsite adoption partnership with Pets Unlimited. Holding the Award are Nova Scotia SPCA Executive Director, Kristin Williams and Jim Harrison, Vice President, Pets Unlimited.   

Animal Homing Award

The first of a dozen awards handed out at the Summit for Urban Animal Strategies recognizes an organization that demonstrates innovation, commitment and extraordinary effort in homing animals through adoption, sale and fostering programs. 

Presented by IAMS Canada, the Animal Homing award nominees should demonstrate exemplary community and industry collaboration, commitment to creating responsible pet communities and peer recognition. 

NOMINATION FORM

Past winners of the Animal Homing category award include Capitol Regional District (2008), Lincoln County Humane Society (2009) and Edmonton Humane Society (2010). 

In 2011, Toronto Animal Services (TAS) walked away from the summit with the prestigious award and in turn, garnered recognition, awareness and respect from fellow industry ambassadors both at home and across the country.  

TORONTO ANIMAL SERVICES

Nominated for its outstanding statistics in pet adoption, TAS stood out because of its extensive efforts to find first and forever homes for animals in the Toronto area. Assuming a multi-faceted approach to rehoming, TAS increased pet adoption numbers by 18 per cent.