Best Friends Professional Development Symposium: Reaching New Heights in Contemporary Animal Services
Presented in partnership with Southern Utah University (SUU)
Ready for exciting, fast-paced learning that will help you save more lives? Best Friends’ symposium presentations are designed to be dynamic and lively, keeping you interested while introducing new ideas and lifesaving solutions. The presentations are about 15 minutes each, and you’ll have access to extended, in-depth bonus sessions after the symposium ends.
* Lifesaving Research
Wednesday, September 16, 2020 (all times are MT)
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Making History in Animal Services (Julie Castle, Scott Wyatt)
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Making History in Animal Services
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Coming soon
Speakers:
Julie Castle, Scott Wyatt
9:30 – 9:45 a.m.
Benchmarking and Turning Data into Action (Marc Peralta)
9:45 – 10:00 a.m.
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Benchmarking and Turning Data into Action
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 9:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Multitudes of tactics can help you save the lives of animals and support the people who love them; having a lifesaving benchmark is one of them. A 90% save rate has long been associated with a community achieving no-kill. Where did that benchmark come from? How does it drive action? With the move toward community-supported sheltering, is it still relevant? This talk will dive into these questions to give you a better understanding of the 90% benchmark, its relevance and its use by Best Friends in achieving no-kill nationwide by 2025. Remember, if you don’t value it, you won’t change it.
Speaker:
Marc Peralta
Fundraising in Economic Uncertainty (Patricia (Trish) Tolbert)
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Fundraising in Economic Uncertainty
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
The difficult time that we’re all living through presents many challenges, but also some opportunities. Through innovative adoption strategies and expansion of fostering, shelter professionals are forging new paths in lifesaving. But what about fundraising? In this session, attendees will explore three skill sets — visioning, diversification and relationship-building — that will assist them in leading changes regarding their approach to fundraising and in establishing greater resiliency of all types. The bonus content will allow attendees to take actionable steps toward developing those skills. Plus, the presenter will introduce a practical tool that Best Friends is releasing in October to help us thrive in our fundraising efforts.
Speaker:
Patricia (Trish) Tolbert
10:00 – 10:15 a.m.
Dogs on the Move: Factors Impacting Animal Shelter and Rescue Organizations’ Decisions to Accept Dogs from Distant Locations* (Kaitlyn Simmons)
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Dogs on the Move: Factors Impacting Animal Shelter and Rescue Organizations’ Decisions to Accept Dogs from Distant Locations
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Despite vast interest in the subject of animal transfer programs in the animal welfare community, little research has focused on such programs and much of the debate regarding the merits of such programs is based on anecdotal evidence. In this presentation, you’ll learn the results of an exploratory study that surveyed 193 individuals associated with animal shelter and rescue organizations in the United States. The survey evaluated factors that impacted organizations’ decisions to transfer in dogs over long distances (more than 100 miles) and assessed what criteria were commonly valued by destination organizations. Understanding these results and common themes associated with organizations’ decisions to select particular dogs for long-distance transfer could contribute to a better understanding of the myriad of factors at play within this complex situation and ultimately allow for more informed programs to save shelter dogs.
Speaker:
Kaitlyn Simmons
10:15 –10:30 a.m.
Live Main Stage
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Break
10:45 – 11:00 a.m.
Measuring Pet Ownership Rates in Four Underserved Urban and Rural Communities in the United States* (Tess Hupe)
11:00 – 11:15 a.m.
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Measuring Pet Ownership Rates in Four Underserved Urban and Rural Communities in the United States
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
The findings of a brief survey conducted by community-based research assistants to measure pet ownership rates in two urban and two rural study communities considered pet resource desserts," were compared to the 2017-18 AVMA Pet Ownership and Demographic Sourcebook estimation. The comparison showed that while the average pet ownership for the four communities is consistent with that predicted from the AVMA data, the rates vary greatly at the individual community and species levels. In particular, there appears to be wide differences in overall pet ownership and the inclusion of dogs between urban and rural households. In this presentation, you’ll dive deeper into these survey results and discover why accurate data on pet ownership rates at the national, state and individual household levels are paramount to understanding the need for pet care services, implementing public policy, planning disaster responses and evaluating the effectiveness of animal sheltering and welfare programming.
Speaker:
Tess Hupe
Housing Insecurity and Pets (Gina Knepp)
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Housing Insecurity and Pets
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 11:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
In this session, the presenter will talk about discriminatory housing practices that force people to give up their pets and what we need to know to change them. You’ll learn to tackle misconceptions about pets in rental housing and general attitudes toward pets in rental communities and take away a sample pet agreement to help people stay with their pets. The animal welfare industry can be very instrumental in understanding the challenges of pet ownership in rental housing. Being armed with the right information may make the difference between families surrendering their pets and keeping families together.
Speaker:
Gina Knepp
11:15 – 11:30 a.m.
Keeping Pets With Families (Heather Owen)
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
The Chicagoland Rescue Intervention and Support Program (CRISP) has successfully helped pets in Chicago stay with their families, even during the pandemic. In this presentation, you’ll learn about the lifesaving tactics that CRISP uses, including creating a non-judgmental atmosphere, changing the conversation toward lifesaving, employing social media for storytelling and fundraising, and operating as a coalition.
Speaker:
Heather Owen
11:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Live Main Stage
11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Lunch break
12:15 – 1:15 p.m.
The Transformation of American Society and Culture into Pet Nation (Mark Cushing)
1:15 – 1:30 p.m.
Leadership for Lifesaving Change (Alexis Pugh)
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Leadership for Lifesaving Change
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 1:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
There are seven essentials for successful leadership in rapidly changing times: (1) Be open to radical new ideas. (2) Be OK with being wrong or trying something that might not work. (3) Don't get too attached to expectations and be willing to correct your course. (4) Provide constant supportive communication with your team. (5) Seek feedback from all levels of your organization. (6) Look outside your organization for guidance and ask for help. (7) Don't internalize negative pushback from stakeholders. In this presentation, you’ll explore each of these fundamentals and discover the skills you need to be a lifesaving leader.
Speaker:
Alexis Pugh
1:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Working with Difficult Stakeholders (Denise Deisler)
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Working with Difficult Stakeholders
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 1:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
In this presentation, you’ll learn how to turn challenging interactions into meaningful, productive relationships and how to reframe the concept of winning to successfully influence others and gain support. We’ll also talk about the importance of listening in order to develop an understanding of perspectives other than your own. Change is hard for many people and easy for some, but as leaders we have to be the bridge builders and not the obstruction. We must set aside our egos and needs for the greater good of the pets and people in our communities.
Speaker:
Denise Deisler
1:45 – 2:15 p.m.
Achieving No-Kill by 2025: A Look at the Future of Animal Sheltering (Brent Toellner)
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Achieving No-Kill by 2025: A Look at the Future of Animal Sheltering
Wednesday, September 16, 2020: 1:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
In 2016, Best Friends Animal Society put a stake in the ground and announced a bold goal to bring the entire nation to no-kill by 2025. It's a monumental challenge, but with the correct lifesaving strategies in place, it is possible. In this presentation, we will dive into the regional and national picture of animal sheltering in the U.S. and discuss the progress being made, the challenges that lie ahead and the strategies that are being deployed to achieve this ambitious goal.
Speaker:
Brent Toellner
2:15 – 2:30 p.m.
Live Main Stage
Thursday, September 17, 2020
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Animal Services - A Noble Profession (Tawny Hammond)
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Animal Services - A Noble Profession
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Animal services is a rewarding and complex profession that utilizes an equally complex skill set. Directors and leaders call upon experience in politics, marketing, business, labor negotiating, personnel management, legal situations, veterinarian programs, operations of facilities, communications and crisis management, just to name a few. While animal services leaders come from all different backgrounds, the most successful leaders often come from different disciplines. In this presentation, you’ll learn about the successes that leaders from other disciplines have achieved, how to find talent from other fields and how current practitioners can embrace change and evolve.
Speaker:
Tawny Hammond
9:30 – 9:45 a.m.
Shedding Your Leadership Skin: Reinventing Yourself to Help More Animals (Lisa LaFontaine)
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Shedding Your Leadership Skin: Reinventing Yourself to Help More Animals
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 9:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
The animal welfare movement is evolving at warp speed and as leaders, we have to evolve, too, and embrace change. In this session, you’ll learn how to empower people rather than cling to policies and procedures; get up every day with resolve and new ideas to help more animals; look at animals as individuals, whether you care for 50 or 50,000; use systems thinking to build a safety net around people and animals; build a collaborative network with colleagues to seal up the places where animals fall through the cracks; and combine the best of business management and passion for your mission to create impact. Fear of taking the wrong step can paralyze any leader, especially those in animal welfare. Together, let’s move past that fear and lead to save lives.
Speaker:
Lisa LaFontaine
9:45 – 10:00 a.m.
Saving Cats and Transforming Animal Services: A Public Policy Discussion* (Peter Wolf)
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Saving Cats and Transforming Animal Services: A Public Policy Discussion
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
For every dog killed in U.S. animal shelters, there are two cats meeting the same fate. Transforming our shelters therefore requires a focus on cats, especially those entering shelters as strays, since these are the animals most at risk of being killed. In this presentation, you’ll review the most relevant research about the effective management of free-roaming cats, the results of which make clear that trap-neuter-return (TNR) is the only feasible option in most cases. This research ties together findings from the “hard sciences,” such as wildlife biology, and various social sciences to make the case that trap-neuter-return (TNR) is not only the most humane option for managing a community’s free-roaming cat population, but also the only feasible policy option available.
Speaker:
Peter Wolf
10:00 – 10:15 a.m.
What's Up with Cats? (Holly Sizemore)
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Cat issues can be highly controversial, despite years of data-based evidence that programs like targeted trap-neuter-return are the most viable and effective way to handle free-roaming cats. The presenter will focus on program and policy transformations currently underway for cats and describe what those transformations look like in our sheltering system and communities. We’ll explore why more cats are killed in U.S. shelters than dogs (2.3 cats are killed for every dog) and why cat policies and programs must differ from those for dogs. Attendees will learn how communities are creating safe, humane and equitable solutions for cats, for people who love cats and for people who want to keep cats off their property.
Speaker:
Holly Sizemore
10:15 – 10:30 a.m.
Live Main Stage
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Break
10:45 – 11:00 a.m.
Changing Laws to Increase Lifesaving (Debra Griggs)
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Changing Laws to Increase Lifesaving
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
You know what actions are needed to end the killing in your community and you are ready to go to work, only to discover that a local ordinance or state law doesn’t allow you to carry out a vital lifesaving practice. Now what? Don’t let a law or policy that’s contrary to your goals stop you from saving lives. Instead, learn how to advocate for the animals and build a team to remove those barriers. In this presentation, you’ll get a road map to changing laws and policies to support your lifesaving efforts, learn strategies for creating sustained relationships with policy makers, and discover what’s needed to build an effective advocacy team. You already know how to create a strategic plan to help the people and pets in your community; now find out how to use that practice for policy change.
Speaker:
Debra Griggs
11:00 – 11:15 a.m.
Fast-Tracking Pets Through the Shelter System (Dr. Kate Hurley)
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Fast-Tracking Pets Through the Shelter System
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 11:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Fast-tracking animals toward the best possible outcome reduces stress, illness, crowding and costs, while allowing shelters to serve as many animals as possible. In this presentation, you’ll learn key strategies, in areas from intake to shelter care, that reduce length of stay and maximize live release, keeping in mind that the shortest length of stay may involve preventing animals from coming through the shelter’s doors in the first place.
Speaker:
Dr. Kate Hurley
11:15 – 11:30 a.m.
Pushing the Boundaries of Lifesaving from a Medical Perspective (Dr. Erin Katribe)
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Pushing the Boundaries of Lifesaving from a Medical Perspective
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
As part of the journey to no-kill, we must push the boundaries of lifesaving, take risks, and encourage staff and volunteers to step outside of their comfort zones. That also means taking a critical look at medical cases that previously seemed unsavable, on both the population and individual animal levels. In this presentation, you’ll learn how one organization pushed the boundaries and saved more lives than anyone thought possible during an outbreak of distemper. You’ll hear the story of another organization that took a risk, creating innovative solutions to save neonatal kittens, one of the most vulnerable populations in shelters. And you’ll find out how to communicate and collaborate within the shelter and the community so that more lives can be saved.
Speaker:
Dr. Erin Katribe
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Lunch break
12:00 – 12:15 p.m.
Investigating the Effects of Canine Housing and Social Interaction in the Animal Shelter* (Dr. Lisa Gunter)
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Investigating the Effects of Canine Housing and Social Interaction in the Animal Shelter
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 12:00 p.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Research conducted at Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, Minnesota, investigated how housing and daily contact with other dogs affected the welfare of dogs awaiting adoption. Using scientifically sound interventions and evidence-based solutions, the research has increased awareness of the actual needs of dogs living in animal shelters, allowing for the improvement of their proximate and distal welfare, and reducing the likelihood of euthanasia based on quality of life concerns. These findings provide compelling evidence that both housing conditions for dogs in a shelter and their interactions with others can influence stress, immune function and ultimately, welfare. In this presentation, you’ll dive deeper into this research and learn why characteristics of kenneling and type of social contact should be incorporated into daily sheltering practices to improve the lives of dogs.
Speaker:
Lisa Gunter
12:15 – 12:30 p.m.
Building Human-Animal Support Services (Kristen Hassen Auerbach)
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Building Human-Animal Support Services
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 12:15 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.
New ways of serving animals and people are emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic, heralding the future of animal sheltering. Programs that provide human-animal support services focus on keeping animals in their homes, neighborhoods and communities. Learn all about these programs, which have the capacity to reduce shelter intake by 50% or more, and find out how you can implement them in your organization. Speaker: Kristen Hassen Auerbach, Executive Director, Pima County Animal Care Center; board member, National Animal Care and Control Association (NACA); and executive committee member, American Pets Alive.
Speaker:
Kristen Hassen-Auerbach
12:30 – 12:45 p.m.
Tools and Technology to Support Community-Based Sheltering (Bobby Mann)
12:45 – 1:00 p.m.
Lifesaving as a Community Ethic (Dr. Ellen Jefferson)
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Lifesaving as a Community Ethic
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 12:45 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Saving the lives of homeless pets isn’t something municipal shelters can or should do alone. The entire community needs to be part of the lifesaving because not killing pets even though resources and space are lacking is a community ethic. In this presentation, you’ll discover what it really means for a community to embrace lifesaving as a community ethic, what the components of the lifesaving equation are, and how to build valuable partnerships.
Speaker:
Dr. Ellen Jefferson
1:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Break
1:15 – 1:30 p.m.
Practicing Compassionate Badassery: Shifting from Self-Care to 'We-Care' (Jessica Dolce)
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Practicing Compassionate Badassery: Shifting from Self-Care to 'We-Care'
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 1:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
While animal welfare work is deeply rewarding, it also exposes staff to occupational risks, like burnout, secondary traumatic stress and moral distress, inevitably taking a toll on staff well-being and the organization’s ability to deliver high-quality services. Innovative efforts to improve contemporary animal services must include policies, practices and resources dedicated to reducing the harm caused by exposure to predictable occupational risks and increasing the overall investment in the people who power these lifesaving changes. Practicing compassionate badassery is about having the courage to push back against pervasive burnout culture to mitigate the risks of helping those who are suffering and in need. In this talk, you’ll find out how leaders can make intentional choices to care for themselves and their people, so that they can thrive in challenging conditions and continue to make an impact for animals.
Speaker:
Jessica Dulce
1:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Field Services Moving Forward (Ed Jamison)
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Field Services Moving Forward
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 1:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
The world does not look the same since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and neither should your field services. In this session, you’ll learn how your field team can strive to meet the needs of your community. We have moved from a model of strictly enforcement and punishment to one of collaboration and partnering with the community. Field services (animal control) does amazing work every day and together we can shape a better tomorrow for pets and their people.
Speaker:
Ed Jamison
1:45 – 2:00 p.m.
The Intersectionality of Animal Welfare and Social Justice Movements: Lessons for Improved Lifesaving* (Dr. Kristin Barney)
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The Intersectionality of Animal Welfare and Social Justice Movements: Lessons for Improved Lifesaving
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 1:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
While comparisons between animal welfare and social justice movements are not new, the current climate of social unrest presents an opportunity to re-examine the relationships and consider how the current climate may influence animal welfare. In this presentation, you’ll discover the commonalities between the animal welfare, women's rights and racial justice movements, how the movements have related in the past, and how current social change movements may influence animal welfare. You’ll also explore how the best practices of successful social change movements are considered relative to barriers in lifesaving, and how to take actionable steps to remove those barriers.
Speaker:
Kristin Barney
2:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Reaching New Heights with Marketing by Listening to Diverse Voices (James Evans)
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Reaching New Heights with Marketing by Listening to Diverse Voices
Thursday, September 17, 2020: 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
In animal welfare, as in every field, we must learn to listen to diverse voices and infuse them into mass communications, particularly when we’re attempting to effect national or global change. During this presentation, you’ll get insights into what makes a successful marketing campaign in today’s world and learn why you should listen to voices other than your own.
Speaker:
James Evans
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.
Live Main Stage
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Private post-symposium live event with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson (James Evans)
Details subject to change.
Sponsored by:
