FYIMS Friends for Life Animal Shelter

Friends for Life [ffl] is the only no kill, leed-certified Shelter in houston and we have created programs that are completely unique within the Animal welfare industry. We are thought leaders in the Animal welfare community and have a significant and growing list of "firsts and onlys" in the field. We mentor over 40 other shelters in progressive methods of lifesaving. Houstonians (and Animal advocate everywhere) are aching to end the killing of animals in shelters. The media coverage is passionate. Yet, until ffl started new and progressive programs, nothing had changed in the way houston Animal shelters work since 1924. Even among no kill programs, ffl is unique in our engagement with the community, the way that we organize our leadership and goverance, the emphasis we place on a professional Animal behavior department, our support of targeted, data-driven trap-neuter-return programs and our commitment to the principles of nonviolent communication. From a programmatic standpoint, rather than exclusively taking animals from city or county agencies, a voluntary constraint many no kill shelters place upon themselves, ffl is a partner to the community as a whole and accepts animals who are strays, animals from owners who can no longer care for them, while also pulling the most at-risk animals from city and county kill lists.we've created effective paths that are proven to reduce the killing of animals in all houston shelters. We have created programs that are no kill and expand the definition of adoptable to find homes for the animals who would be killed in the present system. Our programs work to save seniors, nursing babies, and those who need medical care. We have redefined adoptable:we take in animals regardless of breed, age, or condition. If the Animal is treatable or able to be saved, we make it happen. More than 75% of the animals we place in loving homes would not make the "adoptable" list at other area shelters. We're able to do this by maintaining a large network of foster homes that provide temporary care and critical rehabilitation for our Animal clients. We fund 100% of the cost of the animals for the foster including all medical, supply, and behavioral training. The majority of the thousands of animals we have placed in homes would not have made it out of traditional shelters alive. We treat animals that need the basics (vaccinations, deworming, spay/neuter) and those that require major surgeries and specialist consultations.the robust screening process of potential homes has been refined during our two decades of operation. The adoption process includes a "sleepover" that allows a potential adopter to get to know the pet on a trial week-long stay. Offsite adoption events are conducted using our mobile adoption vehicle (mav) to make adoptable animals accessible at locations around the greater houston area.our unique "thinking outside the Shelter" program works to keep animals out of any Shelter in the first place. We look upstream for lasting solutions to the homeless Animal problem and innovate creative solutions that prevent issues from arising in the first place. Three specific programs lead the way in this initiative: fix houston initiative, thinking outside the Shelter program and free pet food and veterinary drive-thru services.

Thinking outside the Shelter program:the goal of our "thinking outside the Shelter" program is to keep animals out of shelters. We achieve this in two ways: supporting families through difficult times and enabling them to keep their pets; and by spaying/neutering and returning healthy community cats. Keeping animals (owned, or community) out of the Shelter system is a win for everyone. We assist families with low-cost vaccinations, flea and heartworm prevention, and de-wormer. We have provided more than 75 tons of food to low-income community members through our standing pet food bank -the longest running pet food bank in houston. Collars, leashes, crates, puppy pads and other necessities have also been provided to hundreds of people for their pets. When owners are struggling to keep their pet because of challenging behavior, we provided behavior and training support to enable them to keep their pet. We provided free or low-cost boarding on a temporary basis to act as a bridge for pet owners until they could secure housing to allow them to reclaim their pets. Creating a new system to Shelter people with pets in disasters:we are connected to the houston community in significant ways. The executive director serves on the city Animal Shelter (barc) advisory board, and during hurricane harvey, ffl was asked by the city to manage the entire Animal response at the largest city Shelter, containing 10,000 evacuees. In the first 24 hours, ffl registered and triaged 671 animals. Through the duration of the storm, we registered, treated, and housed more than 1500 pets with families. We successfully conducted emergency sheltering in which people could stay with their pets for the first time in u.s. history. This proof of concept set a national standard for how to successfully keep pets with their evacuee families. In partnership with other organizations, ffl produced a nationally (and internationally) available manual on how other communities may replicate the lifesaving crisis response practices we created.

Fix houston trap-neuter-return community cat initiative:our fix houston initiative has kept 110,000 animals out of our Shelter or anyone else's by providing free spay/neuter services to areas of houston that don't have access to basic veterinary care. The fix houston program is the first of its kind in houston, creating a public/ private relationship with the city. According to city intake /euthanasia data at barc, fix houston has had a major impact in the areas where we have focused our efforts. The fix houston initiative has provided more than 5,500 free spay/neuter surgeries since its creation in 2013. This has prevented more than 110,000 births. The fix houston initiative includes a targeted tnr program that has stabilized community cat colonies in the zip code with the highest rates of citizen complaints and turn-ins to Animal control, according to city data. To make this work, we systematically "block walk" neighborhoods to identify areas that need spay/neuter help, cat colony management, food assistance, and Animal support. In this way, we are building the working relationship that has long been missing between shelters and the community. We serve both - the community cat population and the owned Animal populations. The trap neuter release (tnr) feline program of fix houston has provided trapping, neuter surgeries, and vaccinations for thousands of community cats, preventing births and stabilizing communities. We also provided thousands of pounds of food to community cat colony managers and loaned free traps to the community. We are extrtemely proud of our unique "fraidy cat" program that saves a strata of shelters cats that number in the millions nationwide and have traditionally been doomed. There are "friendlies" that are the easiest to adopt out and at the other end of the spectrum, there are "ferals" that are totally unsocialized enough and comfortable outside that they can be released.but the cats that are not able to function as wild because they have been indoors, or are too old, or injured or have some deficit but range from shy to completely terrified of humand and unsocialized are "fraidies. And they are rountinely killed because until our program, there was no path through any Shelter for them. We have created a systemitized program to socialize them, graduated hundreds of them and published and presented on it in scientific circles. The nyspca has implemented our program in all five boroughs of nyc, it is so effective and unique.we created the first ever private/public partnership with the city of houston - healthy pets healthy streets (hphs) - we have provided thousands of free cat spay/neuter surgeries, microchipping and vaccinations for pets of low-income, underserved communities of houston (the city funds the dog portion of hphs. ).