Description
EARS rescues animals from south Florida over-crowded, county open admission shelters, also known as "kill shelters". EARS Shelter Managers maintain regular contact with the County Animal Control Officers regarding animals at risk of being euthanized. Several times a month EARS staff and volunteers travel to county shelters, run behavioral tests, and pull adoptable animals from the shelters. This relieves the county shelter staff from the horrible task of euthanizing healthy puppies, kittens, older dogs and cats. We also rescue local animals surrendered to us by their owners, usually due to health or financial problems.
All of our pets are assessed and scheduled for medical care including; vaccinations, spaying/neutering, de-worming, tested for parasites, flea/tick treatment, and micro-chips. Once vetted The animals are groomed, photographed, cats are introduced to the cat sanctuary, dogs are fostered out and then they are put up for adoption.
Budget
$110,000
Category
Animal-Related, General/Other Farm & Domestic Animal Protection & Welfare
Program Linked to Organizational Strategy
Yes
Population Served
Families Adults US
Short Term Success
EARS rescue program is successful when we rescue animals on verge of being euthanized and successfully get them vetted and into either our cat sanctuary or into a dog foster home. Our success can be measured with analytical data from our PetPoint database of pet intakes and medical record documentation.
Long Term Success
Long term success is achieved by finding our rescued animal loving, forever homes. We have a 96% success rate, with our losses equally split between untreatable illnesses at the time of rescue, or such bad aggression issues that it puts the health of caregivers in jeopardy. Success is measured comparing the numbers of our animal intakes with our adoption, death and euthanasia outcomes using the multi-national, on-line Animal Shelter database, PetPoint. In 2016 we rescued, vetted and rehomed over 350 animals.
Program Success Monitoring
We monitor our numbers monthly, quarterly and yearly using Pet Point, we also share this data with the national program, "Shelter Pets Count" and "The Million Cat Challenge"
Program Success Examples
In 2014 we rescued, vetted and adopted out about 200 animals, (Petpoint was not in use for the full year in 2014), in 2015 the number climbed to 335 and in 2016 the number of pets saved by EARS was 357, the ratio of cats to dogs saved has been almost even in the last two years. However, the best way to show the success of EARS rescue mission is to see the joy that both the pet as well as the new owners show in their eyes. Here is just a few examples:
http://www.earsanimalrescue.com/#!happy-families/c166z
Description
EARS is striving to be a no cage rescue organization, as much as healthfully possible. Our animals receive a humane and kind home during transition from a kill shelter to a forever home. This process is time and manpower intensive. Our cats and dogs are isolated for their first week at EARS while receiving vet care to prevent the spread of any communicable diseases. Once vetted the cats lounge about in a specially a designed, bright, clean cattery, lots of windows, shelves and hiding spots. Our rescue dogs are housed in private homes. Volunteer foster parents are matched with a rescue dog for a place of safety and security during their time of transition. Foster parents are sign an foster application, have a home visit by and EARS member and sign a Foster Contract prior to their being accepted as foster parents. The foster parents get to know the dogs intimately and play a strong role answering prospective adopters questions, and approving the forever home for their foster dog.
Potential adopters find us through national pet adoption sites like Petfinder.com, our Social Media sites, our website, special events and weekly adoption events. Once someone becomes interested in adopting a pet we interview them, have them show identification, fill out an adoption application, watch them handling the animal and conduct a home visit. If approved have them sign and adoption contract. Then we celebrate the adoption with pictures and Happy Tails posts. Many people that adopt through us become avid supporters of EARS.
Budget
$25,000
Category
Animal-Related, General/Other Farm & Domestic Animal Protection & Welfare
Program Linked to Organizational Strategy
Yes
Population Served
Families General/Unspecified Adults
Short Term Success
The success of our dogs in the foster program high-lights the short-term success goal. It is self evident in the simplest of ways. Each time we see one of our previously frightened, panicked, or sickly dog transform into an healthy, confident animal with their foster family we can see the success in the animal's eye. The short-term success of our no-cage cat rescue is seeing our cats healthly and playful in the cattery.
Long Term Success
The long term the success of is the adoption of these now healthy pets! The EARS programs save animals' lives, every life we save is a success story. Year over year we have increased the number of animals we have saved, last year we saved 357 animals!
Program Success Monitoring
We monitor our success using a state-of-the-art, international, animal rescue database, Petpoint. All rescued animals and their medical records are entered into this system as are, information on our personnel, volunteers, foster people, our adopters. However, the best monitor of our success is in the faces of our adopted dogs and their owners!
Program Success Examples
We count our success by the number of animals and people that have found each other. Our adoption families show the joy on our website at: http://www.earsanimalrescue.com/#!happy-families/c166z
Description
This program is an ongoing social service area of activity at EARS, current activities include;
Our pet food bank provides pet food for economically challenged pet owners to avoid the need to surrender their pets. The pet pantry also supports TNR cat communities in our area and we distribute pet food to the Charlotte County Homeless Coalition to help homeless families feed and keep their pets.
Our Social Media and Website include educational articles from Animal Rescue and Animal Health experts to assist in educating the public on spay/neutering, disease control, animal rights and pet training. We also use these sites to help people rehome their pets if they can't keep them due to health or financial problems.
We participate in local community events and disemminate information on pet health, training and preventing over-population.
EARS shares our local businesses and charities events and information
We do a pet adoption fair 2 times a month at Pet Supermarket to expose our adoptable dogs to the possible adopters and also hand out educational information at these events.
EARS now has an experienced dog trainer to provide dog adopters training to correct social issues with their dogs at no charge.
Budget
$18,000
Category
Animal-Related, General/Other Animal Protection & Welfare
Program Linked to Organizational Strategy
Yes
Population Served
Adults Families General/Unspecified
Short Term Success
EARS provides pet food for families with limited lower income. Families are able to afford to keep there pets rather than surrendering them with this program support. We also assist families with dog behavior problems by offering training for their dogs and family members to eliminate surrenders due to aggressive dog behavior or other social problems. EARS takes part in multiple community fairs and exhibits to expose the greater community to the services that EARS provides so that they can come to us if needed.
Long Term Success
Our ultimate goal is to have all local pets fed and healthy, to support to all in need in our community, to eliminate dog surrenders and euthanizing of trainable dogs and to educate families about pet health. With growing exposure to the community we hope to be a household name in Englewood, Venice, Northport and Pt. Charlotte.
Program Success Monitoring
Our pet food bank keeps a roster of pet food donated and distributed. Pet owner who have taken our dog training classes have successfully kept their pets rather then surrender them to EARS. We have moved our Thrift Store to the Dearborn Street historic neighborhood allowing us ongoing exposure to educate the community and find new volunteers and donors.
Program Success Examples
The success of the pet food bank is evident by the growing numbers of pet owners who use our food bank instead of coming to us to surrender their pets. We have now made it possible for any dog owner to contact us for help with social issues between the owners and their pet. This year is the first year we have provided training to owners at no cost. Please see our website for all our outreach activities so far this year at: http://www.earsanimalrescue.com
Description
This program shares information from other FL animal organizations to share adoption profiles of pets in County Open Admission shelters to help them find for-ever homes. This program also helps lost pets find their way home and shares important pet information such as low cost spay/neuter programs. Social media including FaceBook, Twitter and Craigslist are all used to share this information, monetary post "boosts" increase readership. Our posts are shared with local businesses on their social media sites.
Budget
$5,000
Category
Animal-Related, General/Other Animal Ownership
Program Linked to Organizational Strategy
Yes
Population Served
General/Unspecified Adults Aging, Elderly, Senior Citizens
Short Term Success
In a year this program will share over 200 shelter animals profiles, from Animal Shelters in Sarasota, Charlotte, Manatee, Hillsboro and Tampa helping them reach a bigger audience and resulting in more adoptions for those shelters.
The daily sharing of Lost and Found pet information on our sites will enable people to be reunited with their lost pets
Long Term Success
Our long-term success will be in building closer relationships with County Open Admission shelters, helping them advertise pets available for adoption and aiding them in decreasing euthanasia of healthy pets.
Quantitative data is not and will not be available as we are sharing information for other shelters and don't get data back and adopters may see a picture of a pet on line but adopt a different pet when they go to a shelter.
Program Success Monitoring
Feedback from our Facebook and Twitter show people love to help place animals and find lost pets. Our increased readership on Social Media is a strong indicator that the program is working. E-mail from volunteers at other shelters collaborate that our posts bring in potential adopters. A recent EARS rescue of 3 kittens was based on our strong local internet presence.
Program Success Examples
So far 18 dogs and 6 cats have been reunited with their owners with EARS help, these numbers will continue to grow as our audience continues to grow. At the start of 2016 EARS only had one FB page with 800 "likes" we now have 3 pages, EARS Animal Rescue, Ears Thrift Shop and EARS Shares Rescue Pets with over 1500 "likes".