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This week we honor these front-line heroes by sharing a story of how officers in Sacramento, California, are doing their part to save lives - of both the two and four-legged kind. The chief of animal services for the Front Street Animal Shelter, Jace Huggins, tells us about a partnership with their local public health department.








Before he was known as the Cat Daddy, Jackson was a shelter employee, working for the Humane Society of Boulder Valley in Colorado. He worked in several roles, including the front desk supervisor, interfacing with the public who came in to surrender their pets. It was during that time that his knack for working with cats became clear and set him on the path that would make him a household name and help millions better understand their cats through his Animal Planet TV show, My Cat from Hell.








A far cry from the days of being seen as the “dogcatchers,” today’s highly skilled animal care and control officers are on the front lines in our communities, helping animals in need. In the last few years, as sheltering has seen progress towards connecting lifesaving to public safety, there’s a need to restructure the role animal services has in helping the pets and pet owners in their communities.








To catch up on what’s been happening around the country since our last episode, we contacted the Chief Program Officer for Best Friends, Marc Peralta. We discussed what’s happening regarding intake and outcomes in animal shelters and dug into the details around some less-than-helpful news articles that came out over the last few weeks.








Animal welfare is more professional than it’s ever been. Across the country, collectively, we’re saving more lives on any given day than some ever thought possible. We have a greater understanding of the role pets play in our individual lives and within our communities. More than ever, our industry strives to preserve the human-animal bond and keep families together.








If you're feeling more overwhelmed than usual, you are not alone. The year-to-date shelter data shows that intake is up - but not by much compared to the last "normal" year of 2019. Instead, it's mostly driven by a dramatic drop in adoptions which are down roughly 20% from 2019.








It may be hard to believe, but kitten season is just around the corner. In a few weeks, animal shelters and rescues coast-to-coast will be struggling to find enough resources to save this adorable and most at-risk segment of the shelter population.








The Best Friends Podcast Ep. 93: How to establish and grow your animal rescue transport partnerships
This episode is another fantastic session from the 2021 Best Friends National Conference. The presenter, Clare Callison from American Pets Alive!, shares her experience building transport programs and what you need to do to find, and cultivate, the right partnerships to create your own sustainable, effective transport program.








Animal care and control services are redefining the community and embracing principles that promote safe, humane communities for people and pets. Keeping families together should be a primary goal of today’s field services operations. To do that, it is critical to understand the difference between cases of true cruelty, and when it is a case of neglect brought on by a lack of resources, knowledge, or both.








This week we talk to Shannon Glenn from My Pit Bull is Family. They recently launched the North Minneapolis Pet Resource Center to provide the resources, supplies, and referrals to the health and human services people need in order to keep pets where they belong: with their families.