Getting to the Goal with the Michigan Pet Fund Alliance

This week’s guest blog post comes to us from Dr. Diana Newman, who serves as the clinic administrator for Companion Cats (Battle Creek, Michigan) and the Eaton County (Michigan) Humane Society. She is also a board member for the Michigan Pet Fund Alliance (MPFA), and recently attended the MPFA “Getting to the Goal” conference. She shares some information about the conference here.

The Michigan Pet Fund Alliance (MPFA) has a mission to end the killing of healthy cats and dogs in Michigan. We want to make Michigan a “No Kill” state. We have made amazing progress since 2011 when the state live release rate was 53%, according the Michigan Department of Agricultural and Rural Development. In 2017, the live release rate was 88%.

MPFA recently held their biennial conference called Getting to the Goal 2018 on September 27th and 28that the Radisson Hotel in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Over 400 participants shared the exciting “No Kill” conference, which also featured Fear Free and Best Friends Animal Society’s Midwest Regional Leadership Conference. All of the sessions were focused on giving people the tools they need to get Michigan to “No Kill” and save as many lives as possible.

Speakers at the conference were an amazing group of dedicated professionals willing to share their expertise. The keynote speaker was Dr. Marty Becker who previewed the Fear Free Program. (Free Free is a comprehensive training and certification program developed by board-certified veterinary behaviorists, board certified veterinary anesthetists, and other well-known veterinary experts experienced in caring for both the emotional and physical well-being of pets. Now, they’ve engaged leading shelter veterinarians and sheltering experts to develop a comprehensive free training and certification course for animal shelter and rescue workers, which will launch in December 2018.)

Speakers also included:

• Dr. Pam Johnson-Bennett, Cat Behavior Associates
• Alice Burton, Alley Cat Allies
• Monica Frenden, Austin Pets Alive
• Dr. Linda Harper, Consultants in Applied Psychology
• Dr. Theresa DePorter – Fear Free

Topics included Conversational Adoptions, TNR, Breed Discrimination, The Decision to Kill for Behavior, Diversion Programs for Moving Cats from Shelters, No Cats Left Behind, Addressing Non-medical Litter Issues.A list of all the topics and speakers can be found at michiganpetfund.org.

Best Friends Animal Society’s Midwest Regional Meeting was held in conjunction with 2018 Getting to the Goal. In order to meet Best Friends’ mission of Saving Them All by 2025, regional groups were designated by Best Friends. The Midwest group joined us to share with others what Michigan was doing in terms of increasing save rates but also to support the Midwest states as they aim for “No Kill.”

Speakers included:

• Tawny Hammond, Midwest Regional Director Best Friends Animal Society
• Nikki Kelley, Best Friends Animal Society
• Richard Angelo, Attorney for Best Friends Animal Society
• Jose Ocano, Pacific Regional Director Best Friends Animal Society
• Marc Peralta, Senior Director of Regional Programs

Each year The Michigan Pet Fund Alliance recognizes shelters and rescues that have made a dramatic difference in their organizations toward saving more animals. This year’s winners were awarded a plaque and a monetary stipend for their efforts. They were introduced at the luncheon on Friday by Michigan Pet Fund Alliance Director, Debbie Schutt:

• Most Improved Open Admission Large Shelter: Bay County Animal Control, 20% improvement
• Most Improved Open Admission Medium Shelter: Iosco County Animal Shelter, 13% improvement
• Most Improved Open Admission Small Shelter: Arenac County Animal Control, 13% improvement
• Most Improved Open Admission Micro Shelter: Lake County Animal Control, 21% improvement
• Limited Admission Shelter with the Most Adoptions: SPCA of Southwest Michigan, 1322 adoptions, 98.96% live release rate

We’re so grateful to Dr. Newman for this conference recap. There are so many wonderful conferences out there, and attending them is a really great way to keep moving change forward. You can meet others who are involved in similar work to share ideas and get support, learn about new methods, gather statistics to help support your cause, and more. We know it’s not always easy for folks to travel to conferences, however—especially those of you who are out there in the trenches every day to help community cats. That’s one of the many reasons we created the Online Cat Conference—to give people a chance to experience the amazing benefits of a great conference, without having to travel. If you haven’t already signed up for the 2019 conference, which will be held January 25-27, 2019, do it now by visiting https://www.communitycatspodcast.com/online-cat-conference-2019/. Early bird rates are available till December 1st! We can’t wait to meet you there!