Friday, May 30
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
2013 Summer - Real Estate Issue

2013Q2 Non-Profit: Lawrence Humane Society

By on 35 Comments
Non-Profit: Lawrence Humane Society
| 2013 Summer | story by DAISY WAKEFIELD | photos by STEVEN HERTZOG |

kids

Some might think a successful humane society would strive to receive as many animals as can possibly fit into the facility for as long of a time as possible, so that the shelter is bursting through the seams with saved animal lives.

Dori Villalon contends that this is a fallacy and has spent the last two years as Executive Director of the Lawrence Humane Society (LHS) working toward a more efficient and effective shelter that counteracts an overfull population.

“It seems counter intuitive,” Villalon says. “But space and time are not our friends. The more time an animal has in our shelter, the more likely they are to get sick, suffer from depression, or even get to the point where they have to be euthanized. We have a philosophy of adoption driven capacity, which is still a novel idea for a lot of shelters. We want to practice responsible sheltering, rather than having a lot of animals warehoused in the shelter.”

This responsible sheltering means that animals are received, go through behavioral and medical assessments, receive necessary veterinarian or rehabilitation care, and are then placed into the adoption center, go into foster care, or are reunited with their families. Moving animals through the shelter, rather than keeping them indefinitely, is how the organization has gone from a 49% live release rate in 2010 to 85% in 2012.
As an open admissions animal shelter, the organization receives animals no matter the reason, health, behavior or prognosis. They receive strays, lost animals, animals being relinquished by their owners and animals removed from homes because of cruelty. They also receive animals as capacity allows from other nearby shelters that are overpopulated.
LHS is funded in part by a contract with the city and county to house stray or dangerous animals, which amounts to $300k. The rest of the slightly over $1 million a year budget is filled in with adoption fees, reclaim fees, donations and fundraising events. There are a few retail items for purchase at the shelter, but Villalon envisions being able to create other income in the future through services such as dog training classes. She has also changed the structure for adoption fees, which used to be more of a flat rate. Now, adoption fees are tiered by the demand and “cuteness factor,” which means that some adoption fees may escalate to $500 and may even ignite a bidding war between potential adopters.

“kidsA lot of money was slipping through at the table,” Villalon says. “If there is the willingness to pay a higher adoption rate for the cutest little fluff ball of a dog you’ve ever seen, then why wouldn’t we charge it?”

A full-time veterinarian was hired in July of 2012 to help increase the efficiency of operations. Before Dr. Jennifer Stone’s arrival, animals were being transported to varying vets around town for care, or waiting for the twice-a-week visit that a vet was making to the shelter. Now spaying and neutering, as well as other veterinary care, are done daily on-site. Villalon hopes to raise funds to get a second anesthesia machine to expedite the operations even more.

A software tracking system for each animal has replaced the old paper system. Each animal’s intake, vaccinations, spaying or neutering and fostering history are tracked through the software. This has allowed a means of measuring trends and average lengths of stay, which is 20 days.

The Humane Society relies heavily on community engagement such as volunteers, supply donations and corporate sponsorships. Both Hy-Vee stores in Lawrence hosted events for the shelter, raising cash and supplies donations and ending with bringing adoptable animals to the stores. Hills Pet Nutrition donates all the food needed for the shelter and sponsored a 2007 remodel and expansion. The Oread hosts the annual fundraising auction, A Pawsible Dream, which brought in $80K last year and is hoped to bring in $100K this year. And an average of 100 monthly volunteers help to play with kittens, walk dogs and foster animals to health.

“Lawrence is a very animal-centric town,” Villalon says with a smile. “I’ve never been at a shelter where more kids dedicate their birthday parties to raising supplies or money for us. When people have an awareness of animals, it’s a good thing, the luxury to have compassion for other living beings.”
The Humane Society’s improvements have not gone unnoticed. Villalon and her staff of 40 are among 50 shelters invited to participate in the 2013 ASPCA Rachel Ray $100K Challenge. The Challenge will reward the shelter with the highest percentage increase of animals re-homed during the months of June, July, and August over last year. LHS has set a goal of re-homing 1500 animals during the summer months, an increase of 120% over last year. A key mechanism that LHS plans to employ to reach this goal is using volunteers to transport animals to three shelters in Colorado that have the community capacity to re-home animals.

relays3Villalon is not content to just improve the local humane society. She has helped establish Pet Animal Coalition of Kansas with other shelter directors. The group plans to become a legislative voice for animal advocates, to educate other shelters and elevate the level care that animals receive.

“We are committed to not euthanizing friendly, healthy and treatable animals,” Villalon says. “There is never a limit on how long an animal can stay here, but the longer they stay, the more likely they are to get depressed or sick. So we want to get them into a home as soon as we can.” ■

Share.

Related Posts

35 Comments

  2. CashlessTime on

    It’s perfect time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy.
    I’ve read this post and if I could I want to suggest you some
    interesting things or advice. Maybe you can write next
    articles referring to this article. I desire to read even more things
    about it!

  8. Solana meme token on

    Excellent beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your site, how could i subscribe for a blog site? The account aided me a acceptable deal. I had been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided bright clear concept|

  9. Find out here on

    Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I’ve truly enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. In any case I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

  13. Trump Tower Damascus rooftop views on

    Hi there, I discovered your web site by way of Google while searching for a similar topic,
    your web site got here up, it seems to be good. I have bookmarked it in my google
    bookmarks.
    Hi there, just changed into alert to your blog thru Google, and found that it’s really informative.

    I am going to watch out for brussels. I’ll appreciate in the event you continue this in future.
    Many folks can be benefited out of your writing.

    Cheers!

  14. Find out here on

    Aw, this was a really nice post. In thought I would like to put in writing like this moreover ? taking time and actual effort to make a very good article? however what can I say? I procrastinate alot and in no way seem to get one thing done.

  15. Explore now on

    I have been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or weblog posts on this kind of house . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this web site. Reading this information So i?m satisfied to show that I’ve an incredibly just right uncanny feeling I found out exactly what I needed. I most undoubtedly will make certain to don?t omit this site and give it a look on a constant basis.

  16. free giftcards on

    It’s amazing to pay a quick visit this web site and reading the views of
    all colleagues about this post, while I am also keen of
    getting knowledge.

  17. Virtual tour of Trump Tower Syria on

    I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out
    right here. The sketch is attractive, your authored material stylish.
    nonetheless, you command get got an nervousness
    over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell
    unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same
    nearly a lot often inside case you shield this hike.

  19. free giftcards online on

    Hello would you mind letting me know which web host you’re utilizing?
    I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different internet browsers and I must say this
    blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you suggest a good hosting provider
    at a reasonable price? Thanks a lot, I appreciate it!

  21. Demo call conversion optimization on

    I have observed that over the course of constructing a relationship with real estate homeowners, you’ll be able to get them to understand that, in most real estate exchange, a commission rate is paid. Finally, FSBO sellers do not “save” the fee. Rather, they fight to earn the commission by simply doing a good agent’s occupation. In doing this, they expend their money and time to carry out, as best they might, the assignments of an agent. Those responsibilities include disclosing the home via marketing, offering the home to all buyers, building a sense of buyer emergency in order to make prompt an offer, scheduling home inspections, taking on qualification checks with the financial institution, supervising maintenance, and aiding the closing of the deal.

  22. Visit website on

    Thanks for your article on this site. From my very own experience, often times softening upward a photograph may well provide the wedding photographer with a little an creative flare. Sometimes however, the soft clouds isn’t what precisely you had in mind and can in many cases spoil an otherwise good snapshot, especially if you consider enlarging it.

  27. garage door installers on

    Hi there would you mind stating which blog platform you’re working with?
    I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a tough time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs
    and I’m looking for something completely unique.
    P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!

  28. $BARRON meme coin on

    We’re a bunch of volunteers and opening a brand new scheme in our community. Your site offered us with valuable info to work on. You have performed an impressive process and our whole community can be grateful to you.|

Leave A Reply