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Tag: care

  • Austin Pets Alive! | Clarifying and Understanding APA!’s Shelter…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Clarifying and Understanding APA!’s Shelter…

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    Oct 07, 2023

    Austin Pets Alive! is a private nonprofit dedicated to eliminating the needless killing of shelter pets. We have been extremely successful because of the strategy we employ to make Austin, and now other cities, No Kill.

    Our No Kill strategy is simple and two fold:

    1. We save lives by drawing attention to, and taking pets off, the daily euthanasia list while

    2. Allowing that attention to apply pressure on the city to get the proper resources they need to decrease the euthanasia list themselves.

    In 2021, we worked with the city council on an amendment to our city contract that has caused some community and government staff confusion that we hope to dispel with these three points:

    1. Foundational to APA! is to pull only from the euthanasia list to have a measurable effect on the kill rate which ultimately helped the city achieve No Kill status in 2011. It is important to note that critical to this strategy, and implied by the creation and use of a euthanasia list to eliminate pets that they do not have the resources to care for, is that the city can manage and care for all the animals not on the euthanasia list.

    2. Our long term contract was extraordinarily overdue and in need of an update. The old contract created in 2011 was built on a guesstimate of the size of future years’ euthanasia lists; this contract stayed in effect for years past its expiration date with extension after extension after extension which ultimately led to operational misalignment between AAC and APA!. This was resolved in contract negotiations in 2018, when it was mutually agreed that APA! would continue to focus on the euthanasia list, but always have a 12% minimum, as long as we used TLAC. Even though that was documented in 2018, land issues prevented it being signed and so in 2021, APA! worked with city council to bring the extension-riddled contract in line operationally to match the agreement from 2018. The current contract wasn’t finalized until 2023 due to TLAC land issues.

    3. In response to the community demand that AAC do better for the pets that are not on the euthanasia list, the city council has more than doubled the AAC budget between 2008-2023 to allow AAC to reduce the euthanasia list, provide in house medical and behavioral care, as well as community support to meet their stated mission.

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  • Where End-of-Life Care Falls Short

    Where End-of-Life Care Falls Short

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    This article originally appeared in Undark Magazine.

    When Kevin E. Taylor became a pastor 22 years ago, he didn’t expect how often he’d have to help families make gut-wrenching decisions for a loved one who was very ill or about to die. The families in his predominantly Black church in New Jersey generally didn’t have any written instructions, or conversations to recall, to help them know if their relative wanted—or didn’t want—certain types of medical treatment.

    So Taylor started encouraging church members to ask their elders questions, such as whether they would want to be kept on life support if they became sick and were unable to make decisions for themselves.

    “Each time you have the conversation, you destigmatize it,” says Taylor, now the senior pastor at Unity Fellowship Church NewArk, a Christian church with about 120 regular members.

    Taylor is part of an initiative led by Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy group that encourages more Black Americans to consider and document their medical wishes for the end of their life.

    End-of-life planning—also known as advance care planning, or ACP—usually requires a person to fill out legal documents that indicate the care they would want if they were to become unable to speak for themselves because of injury or illness. There are options to specify whether they would want life-sustaining care, even if it were unlikely to cure or improve their condition, or comfort care to manage pain, even if it hastened death. Medical groups have supported ACP, and proposed public-awareness campaigns aim to promote the practice.

    Yet research has found that many Americans—particularly Black Americans—have not bought into the promise of ACP. Advocates say that such plans are especially important for Black Americans, who are more likely to experience racial discrimination and lower-quality care throughout the health-care system. Advance care planning, they say, could help patients understand their options and document their wishes, as well as reduce anxiety for family members.

    However, the practice has also come under scrutiny in recent years: Some research suggests that it might not actually help patients get the kind of care they want at the end of life. It’s unclear whether those results are due to research methods or to a failure of ACP itself; comparing the care that individuals said they want in the future with the care they actually received while dying is exceedingly difficult. And many studies that show the shortcomings of ACP look predominantly at white patients.

    Still, researchers maintain that encouraging discussions about end-of-life care is important, while also acknowledging that ACP needs either improvement or an overhaul. “We should be looking for, okay, what else can we do other than advance care planning?” says Karen Bullock, a social-work professor at Boston College, who researches decision-making and acceptance around ACP in Black communities. “Or can we do something different with advance care planning?”

    Read: The new old age

    Advance care planning was first proposed in the U.S. in 1967, when a lawyer for the now-defunct Euthanasia Society of America advocated for the idea of a living will—a document that would allow a person to indicate whether to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment if they were no longer capable of making health-care decisions. By 1986, most states had adopted living-will laws that established standardized documents for patients, as well as protections for physicians who complied with patients’ wishes.

    Over the past four decades, ACP has expanded to include a range of legal documents, called advance directives, for detailing one’s wishes for end-of-life care. In addition to do-not-resuscitate, or DNR, orders, patients can list treatments they would want and under which scenarios, as well as appoint a surrogate to make health-care decisions for them. Health-care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement are required to ask whether patients have advance directives, and to provide them with relevant information. And in most states, doctors can record a patient’s end-of-life wishes in a form called a Provider Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment. These documents encourage patients to talk with their physician about their wishes, which are then added to the patient chart, unlike advance directives, which usually consist of the patient filling out forms themselves without discussing them directly with their doctor.

    But as far as who makes those plans, research has shown a racial disparity: A 2016 study of more than 2,000 adults, all of whom were over the age of 50, showed that 44 percent of white participants had completed an advance directive, compared with 24 percent of Black participants. Many people simply aren’t aware of ACP or don’t fully understand it. And for Black individuals, that knowledge may be especially hard to come by—one study found that clinicians tend to avoid discussions with Black and other nonwhite patients about the care they want at the end of life, because they feel uncomfortable broaching these conversations or are unsure of whether patients want to have them.

    Other research has found that Black Americans may be more hesitant to fill out documents in part because of a mistrust in the health-care system, rooted in a long history of racist treatment. “It’s a direct, in my opinion, outcome from segregated health-care systems,” Bullock says. “When we forced integration, integration didn’t mean equitable care.”

    Religion can also be a major barrier to ACP. A large proportion of Black Americans are religious, and some say they are hesitant to engage in ACP because of the belief that God, rather than clinicians, should decide their fate. That’s one reason programs such as Compassion & Choices have looked to churches to make ACP more accessible. Several studies support the effectiveness of sharing health messages, including about smoking cessation and heart health, in church communities. “Black people tend to trust their faith leaders, and so if the church is saying this is a good thing to do, then we will be willing to try it,” Bullock says.

    But in 2021, an article by palliative-care doctors laid bare the growing evidence that ACP may be failing to get patients the end-of-life care they want, also known as goal-concordant care. The paper summarized the findings of numerous studies investigating the effectiveness of the practice, and concluded that “despite the intrinsic logic of ACP, the evidence suggests it does not have the desired effect.”

    For example, although some studies identified benefits such as increased likelihood of a patient dying in the place they desired or avoiding unwanted resuscitation, others found the opposite. One study found that seriously ill patients who prioritized comfort care in their advance directive spent practically just as many days in the hospital as did patients who prioritized life-extending experiences. The authors of the 2021 summary paper suggested several reasons that goal-concordant care might not occur: Patients may request treatments that are not available; clinicians may not have access to the documentation; surrogates may override patients’ requests.

    A pair of older studies suggested that these issues might be especially pronounced for Black patients; they found that Black patients with cancer who had signed DNR orders were more likely to be resuscitated, for example. These studies have been held up as evidence that Black Americans receive less goal-concordant care. But Holly Prigerson, a researcher at Cornell University who oversaw the studies, notes that her team investigated the care of Black participants who were resuscitated against their wishes, and in those cases, clinicians did not have access to their records because the patients had been transferred from another hospital.

    One issue facing research on advance care planning is that so many studies focus on white patients, giving little insight into whether ACP helps Black patients. For example, in two recent studies on the subject, more than 90 percent of patients were white.

    Many experts, including Prigerson, agree that it’s important to devise new approaches to assess goal-concordant care, which generally relies on what patients indicated in advance directives or what they told family members months or years before dying. But patients change their mind, and relatives may not understand or accept their wishes.

    Read: My mom will email me after she dies

    “It’s a very problematic thing to assess,” Prigerson says. “It’s not impossible, but there are so many issues with it.”

    As for whether ACP can manage to improve end-of-life care specifically in areas where Black patients receive worse care, such as pain management, experts such as Bullock note that studies have not really explored that question. But addressing other racial disparities—including correcting physicians’ false beliefs about Black patients being less sensitive to pain, improving how physicians communicate with Black patients, and strengthening social supports for patients who want to enroll in hospice—is likely more crucial than expanding ACP.

    ACP “may be part of the solution, but it is not going to be sufficient,” says Robert M. Arnold, a University of Pittsburgh professor of palliative care and medical ethics, and one of the authors of the 2021 article that questioned the benefits of ACP.

    Many of the shortcomings of ACP, including the low engagement rate and the unclear benefits, have prompted researchers and clinicians to think about how to overhaul the practice.

    Efforts to make ACP more accessible have spanned creating easy-to-read versions absent any legalese, and short, simple videos. A 2023 study found that one program that incorporated these elements, called PREPARE for Your Care, helped both white and Black adults with chronic medical conditions get goal-concordant care. The study stood out because it asked patients who were still able to communicate if they were getting the medical care they wanted, rather than waiting until after they died to evaluate goal-concordant care.

    “That, to me, is incredibly important,” says Rebecca Sudore, a geriatrician and researcher at UC San Francisco, who was the senior author of the study and helped develop PREPARE for Your Care. Sudore and her colleagues have proposed “real-time assessment from patients and their caregivers” to more accurately measure goal-concordant care.

    In the past few years, clinicians have become more aware that ACP should involve ongoing conversations and shared decision-making among patients, clinicians, and surrogates, rather than just legal documents, says Ramona Rhodes, a geriatrician affiliated with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

    Rhodes and her colleagues are leading a study to address whether certain types of ACP can promote engagement and improve care for Black patients. A group of older patients—half are Black, and half are white—with serious illnesses at clinics across the South are receiving materials either for Respecting Choices, an ACP guide that focuses on conversations with patients and families, or Five Wishes, a short patient questionnaire and the most widely used advance directive in the United States. The team hypothesizes that Respecting Choices will lead to greater participation among Black patients and possibly more goal-concordant care, if it prepares patients and families to talk with clinicians about their wishes, Rhodes says.

    Taylor, the pastor, notes that when he talks with church members about planning for end-of-life care, they often see the importance of it for the first time. And it usually persuades them to take action. “Sometimes it’s awkward,” he says. “But it’s now awkward and informed.”

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    Carina Storrs

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Open Letter from Dr. Ellen Jefferson, President…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Open Letter from Dr. Ellen Jefferson, President…

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    Sep 05, 2023

    Today, Austin Pets Alive! has made the difficult decision to provide a 30-day notice to end our veterinary services contract with Laredo Animal Care Services (LACS).

    When we began our partnership with LACS earlier this year, at the request of the Laredo city council and community, it was with the whole-hearted intention to help meet the city’s goals of providing medical care and practices that further saved lives. Every vaccine given and disease prevented, medical treatment administered, surgery conducted, and animal transported to another rescue partner was done to not only fulfill our contractual obligations but as a moral obligation to the pets being sheltered in the city. We heard from community member after community member how much it meant to them that their city shelter could become more aligned with the word “shelter” — providing true safety and care to pets that are lost, displaced or abandoned.

    We’re very proud of the work we did alongside many of the dedicated LACS staff members. The last eight months have led to more than 1,000 spay/neuter surgeries (an approx 400% increase from the previous Veterinary vendor) and raised the feline live outcome rate to a historical high of over 70%. Dogs and cats that were once euthanized for having something as simple as a cold were treated and many have already been adopted.

    Unfortunately, we were met with resistance from shelter leadership. Over the past few months as the changes required became more real, and hard, the goals of LACS shifted away from a lifesaving focus and back toward operating at a lower capacity for care and lifesaving. This approach means that thousands of animals who should live long healthy lives will continue to die in order to meet a regressive goal. We cannot in good conscience continue working under such a drastic diversion from the original goals the city council laid out for us to follow.

    It hurts our hearts to leave so many pets and people behind but we believe that we have no other choice. Our true hope is that Laredoans saw that life saving was possible and that they will demand the changes necessary to be a humane city for beloved pets.

    Sincerely,

    Dr. Ellen Jefferson

    President and CEO

    Austin Pets Alive!

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | A Picture of Transport Success: Darla

    Austin Pets Alive! | A Picture of Transport Success: Darla

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    Aug 26, 2023

    APA!’s National Shelter Support team was working at a partner shelter location when they first laid eyes on sweet Darla. With legs too scared to walk, the 8-month old Golden Retriever was being taken to the euthanasia room in a wheelbarrow when a member of our team intervened.

    Jordana Moerbe urgently shared Darla’s story with rescue partners throughout the country in hopes of getting a shelter to accept her into their care; a “yes” from a shelter would mean a ticket onto the upcoming lifesaving transport flight.

    “We had to pull her, we had to save her,” Moerbe said. “We hope that she’s able to come out of her shell and be the happy puppy she deserves to be. It’s what every one of the pets in the shelter deserves, and that’s what we’re working so hard for.”

    Mile High Lab Rescue in Denver accepted her into their care and when this deserving dog landed in July of 2023, she went straight into a loving foster home, where she was given the time and space to gain confidence to become a wiggly puppy.

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Progress Update of APA!’s Veterinary Services…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Progress Update of APA!’s Veterinary Services…

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    Aug 23, 2023

    The City of Laredo and Laredo Animal Care Services (LACS) partnered with Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) in February 2023 as a result of the city’s desire to meet the Laredo community’s need for shelter improvement. Due to limited resources, LACS has historically faced challenges in implementing veterinary best practices, struggling to save half of the 8,000 pets that come into its shelter. Recognizing that a change was needed, LACS contracted with APA! to provide veterinary care services and updated shelter operations. Because LACS has unnecessarily delayed implementing animal welfare industry standards at its shelter, APA! is calling on the citizens of Laredo to join our efforts in advocating for the thousands of pets who are at risk of being euthanized.

    APA! has been helping LACS with rescue transport since 2020 and partnered with LACS during Winter Storm Uri, which led to this bigger partnership. In May 2023, after working with LACS over many months, APA! built a set of customized recommendations and an implementation plan to establish Laredo as a leader in animal sheltering throughout South Texas. LACS has been presented with its first opportunity to accept resources, in the form of time and money, from a transformational organization to help save more animal lives. APA!’s objective is to help fill the gap in necessary training and support, at the request and with the cooperation of LACS, to help people and their pets in Laredo.

    APA!’s implementation plan includes shelter best practices such as support at intake,Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) program, lost pet reunification, and placement programs. A people focused intake model, which includes an appointment-based intake of animals in non-emergency situations into the animal services facility, is a modern practice that prioritizes sick or injured pets, animals in immediate danger, or dogs that pose a threat to public safety. Organized intake frees up shelter resources to ensure emergencies and critical situations are handled promptly and effectively.

    PROGRESS IN SAVING LIVES

    APA!’s vet and national shelter support teams have made significant progress at LACS:

    • Since March, APA! doubled spay and neuters with over 1,000 animals, and in 2023 since the start of the contract, we have brought the feline live outcome rate to over 65%. APA! is responsible for over 1,100 live outcomes in 2023 through rescue transport.

    • Implemented treatment protocols to ensure every sick, treatable animal receives medication and vaccines, health certificates, and more to increase the number of pets saved.

    • Performed an elevated level of medical attention for shelter animals, including leg amputations, mass removals, surgeries, and more to save the pet’s life. Previously animals requiring this care would have been automatically euthanized.

    Furthermore, APA! designed free custom staff training, over 30 standard operating procedures, and an implementation plan for LACS based on best practices that include:

    • Intake Counseling and Triage – To help provide treatment and care to the animals in need, providing consent-based resources for pets that may not need to come to the shelter, and reducing euthanasia rates.

    • Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) program – To ensure stray cats aren’t euthanized upon intake at alarming rates.

    • Lost Pet Reunification – To ensure that at least the national standard number of lost pets make it back to their families.

    • Placement Programs- Rescue/Transport, Adoption, Case Management, Foster, Volunteer – To help reduce the number of pets at the shelter by promoting adoptions, fostering, and working with rescue partners.

    The implementation of these programs and procedures is fundamental to the success of the contract between Austin Pets Alive! and Laredo Animal Care Services to increase adoptions and provide community guidance to better support the people and pets of Laredo. APA! is also providing additional resources such as:

    • 5 Full-time employees (4 directly operations focused and local to Laredo and 1 focused on marketing and communication)

    • National Field Services in-person training

    • Online course module with in-person guidance and assessment for free

    • Weekly transport van and driver dedicated to picking up Laredo animals and taking in-state partners.

    • Once a month, state transport van and driver assistance are dedicated to Laredo animals.

    • $90K pet food donation for the community via HSUS/Chewy secured by APA!.

    • Adoption incentive grant of $3,000 for gift bags for adopters.

    • Handouts, flyers, resources, and posters – printed for the front lobby, and for staff to hand out to the community to help people with their pets.

    CHALLENGES BEING FACED:

    While APA! has addressed the many issues with LACS’s current practices by providing recommendations, staff training, and standard operating procedures, LACS has unnecessarily delayed implementing animal welfare industry standards at its shelter.

    APA!’s implementation plan, introduced in May 2023, includes shelter best practices such as support at intake, Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) program, lost pet reunification, and placement programs.

    To be successful, Laredo Animal Care Services needs to implement these changes immediately and take the community’s and animals’ needs into consideration. Many of the recommendations made by APA! in May have yet to be implemented, leading to the continued killing and warehousing of shelter pets.

    HISTORY

    When APA!’s team first arrived at LACS, they encountered dire conditions, including an extremely high rate of disease in pets–predominately parvovirus; overcrowding, unsanitary kennels; inadequate water and food supplies; and unattended injured animals in urgent need of medical care.

    Upon arrival, APA! quickly identified and implemented immediate solutions to solve these harsh conditions and continued to work with the LACS team to implement additional medical and treatment protocols. These actions have already contributed to saving the lives of several hundred pets that most certainly would have died without intervention due to lack of medical care and euthanasia. The year-end goal is to increase live outcomes to 90%, almost double what they were when APA! first arrived.

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Foster a Pup…Save A Life!

    Austin Pets Alive! | Foster a Pup…Save A Life!

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    Aug 03, 2023

    German Shepherd pup Wile E. Coyote was deeply in need of help when he arrived at Austin Pets Alive! (APA!). He was so emaciated that he could not stand or walk. Then Katie Plunkard entered his world and decided to foster the shy, sweet-faced puppy.

    “This sweet boy was my first foster experience and, boy, was it more than I bargained for. He was in such rough shape but the payoff in watching him overcome it all and get back to 100% has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” she said.

    Under her diligent watch, Wile was given the time, space, care and love he needed to begin to heal. In just five days, he was able to walk for short periods, forcing her to puppy-proof his environment. “This boy is on the move, but after about 30 seconds of walking he naps for a few hours. He still has a long way to go but he’s making strides,” she said.

    It was impossible to not fall in love with Wile’s determination to succeed. Over the next few weeks, she watched him thrive and come into his own. “This guy is brightening up every day! He’s gaining weight, can get himself up the stairs and onto the couch most days, and his personality is coming through more and more,” she said.

    Eventually, it was time for him to venture beyond the backyard, so Plunkard took Wile on his first hike with her own dogs. “Even though I want him to gain weight, German Shepherd dogs need a lot of mental and physical stimulation to satisfy their working breed drive.” The adventure was a great success.

    Soon, Wile E. was ready for adoption, and thanks to the amazing foster care he received with Plunkard he found a warm and loving new home. “I love him more than most of y’all will ever understand so it is bittersweet to send him off to his forever home. But I’m so excited for him to get all of the undivided attention and love that he so craves and deserves.”

    Foster homes offer so much more to shelter pets than simply getting them out of the shelter environment. They offer warmth, human connection, soft spaces to fall down and strong hands to help them get back up. They offer space to learn and gain confidence. Most importantly, they offer the love that every being has the right to know.

    Fall in love with Wile E Coyote and follow along on this foster’s journey! Watch these amazing Instagram Reels to see this beautiful progress – from the car ride to Plunkard’s home to finding his adoptive home!

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Announcing APA!’s Newest Partner Wumbo Woof

    Austin Pets Alive! | Announcing APA!’s Newest Partner Wumbo Woof

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    May 28, 2023

    APA! has a new partner to help save pets! Austin-based Wumbo Woof has pledged to donate $10,000 this year to support APA!s mission to help shelter cats and dogs find safe homes. The online family business offers customized dog accessories such as collars, harnesses, and leashes, through personalized engraving, and has pledged to donate a portion of every sale made throughout 2023 to APA!

    In addition, Wumbo Woof is sponsoring two kennels in APA!’s Sponsor A Kennel program. Each Cat Condo can house up to 27 cats a year and each Dog Kennel houses about 13 pups each year.

    Donations like this provide these pets care and support until they find new families. In return, the sponsors’ names are displayed on the kennels for twelve months, visible to the more than 100,000 visitors APA! receives annually.

    Two of the dogs benefiting from this company’s generosity are Niyah and Rizzy. Niyah is a 4-year-old terrier mix who came to APA! In Mid-April. This playful, cuddly, human-loving gal is patiently waiting for her adoptive home. Meanwhile, she’s done a lot more than look cute from kennel 181 – she’s donated blood to a cat! When kitty Charlie Bucket needed a transfusion, our medical team quickly jumped into action and looked to this good girl pup to help another pet in need.

    Rizzy, is currently taking up residence in the other Wumbo Woof kennel. This beautiful blue and white girl recently came into our care and is about 4 years old. She’s taking a little time to warm up to the environment but has already successfully attended play groups. We’re confident she’ll find a home of her very own soon!

    In addition, Wumbo Woof will help promote pet adoptions by featuring an APA! dog and cat each month on their social media channels.

    We’re honored to have Wumbo Woof’s support and are looking forward to a fun and fashionable year with them!

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Celebrating Eight Years of Share the Love

    Austin Pets Alive! | Celebrating Eight Years of Share the Love

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    May 04, 2023

    For the eighth year in a row, Austin Pets Alive! has been selected as a recipient of funds raised during Austin Subaru’s Share the Love campaign. The annual fundraiser, which ran from November 2022 to January 2023, pledges to donate $250 when a new vehicle is purchased or leased. The 2022 Share the Love campaign has been the most successful to date for our organization, bringing in a tail-wagging $125,000! This awe-inspiring donation can contribute to our organization in many ways! With a contribution like this we we are can do any of the following:

    • treat 416 parvo puppies.

    • vaccinate 2,500 litters of puppies.

    • perform 62 life-saving surgeries.

    • purchase a vehicle for our transport team and support its maintenance.

    Our friends at Austin Subaru support APA! throughout the year and we’re honored to see the hard work and passion they gave to finish the most recent Share the Love campaign on such a high note! The success of the campaign is due to a fundraising concept that easily engages the public and is partnered with the passion that each employee puts behind their effort to share the fundraiser with their customers. And as if raising over $100k doesn’t showcase this company’s passion enough, this generous company makes sure to mark the check celebration by coming on site to put in some sweat equity by participating in a volunteer project!

    In celebration of this donation, the dealership team rolled up their sleeves and “dug” in to help us beautify a piece of our shelter! The team got to work laying out the frame for a memorial garden, shoveling fresh dirt into wheelbarrows, then smoothing it into the garden area. With 12 people contributing a couple of hours, we were able to make huge progress and are now ready for the next phase in this project!

    Thank you Austin Subaru for your continuous support year after year — support that has helped save the lives of hundreds of animals! This generous support furthers APA!’s mission to provide innovative life-saving medical care and support so that more pets can be saved each year.

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Tripod Dogs

    Austin Pets Alive! | Tripod Dogs

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    Apr 28, 2023

    Dogs and cats come through our doors for various reasons, and many of them have something in common: they need life-saving medical attention. These pets may come to us from Austin Animal Center or from under-resourced shelters throughout Texas. Fortunately, APA!’s programs, such as our Medical Triage & Wellness Clinic, are able to provide the care needed to give these pets a chance at life.

    Our skilled medical team cares for hundreds of pets each year with injuries more extensive than many shelters can care for including pets with severe orthopedic injuries.

    Each case is approached with care and consideration for what will be the most beneficial and most comfortable solution to support animals throughout the remainder of their lives. Our veterinarians explore many paths to help the pet heal, and sometimes, in the case of orthopedic injuries, that may mean amputation of a limb. That’s what happened to Hercules, who arrived in our care with a badly wounded leg. The best medical attention from our team combined with the attentive care from his foster family could not save his leg. While Hercules’ skin and muscle were able to heal his bone simply couldn’t bear weight anymore. After his amputation surgery, however, the light came back into this senior boy’s eyes and is now a ball of energy and fun!

    In some cases, our team knows immediately that amputation is the best choice. After being hit by a car and likely dragged, Paver’s wounds were severe enough that our veterinary medical specialists worked quickly to remove the damaged limb so that this young pup was able to rapidly get his zest back! Paver now moves through life as if romping on three legs is all he’s ever known!

    Occasionally, pups come to us after amputation has occurred, like Miss Nora. We don’t know her full story, but we do know that at just two months old one of her front legs had been removed, causing the remaining front leg to develop abnormally. Our staff and volunteer teams work daily to ensure she receives the care she needs, including a custom made sling that supports the front part of her body when she walks.

    While It may feel sad or be hard to see a dog have only three legs, amputations are often the only way we can help dogs return to the feeling of normalcy after experiencing a traumatic event. It’s an honor to be able to provide the support these pups so deeply need and to help them find a loving home.

    Psst. We have several other tripods available for adoption, too! Bryce, Magnum, Champ and Destiny

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Special Thank You to All of Our APA! Volunteers!

    Austin Pets Alive! | Special Thank You to All of Our APA! Volunteers!

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    Apr 19, 2023

    As animal shelters all across the country head into “busy season,” the impact that volunteers make is often underestimated and sometimes overlooked. At Austin Pets Alive!, the people who donate their time and experience to the animals who are fortunate enough to get to APA!, are part of what I consider our “lifeblood.

    APA! volunteers are here because they love animals, but what sets APA volunteers apart is that while they are here they become experts in animal welfare. They become experts in neonatal kitten care. They become experts in giving dogs an enriching experience while waiting for a family in an extremely challenging shelter environment. They become experts in helping a high volume of animals recover from surgery. They become experts in helping dogs overcome behaviors related to puppyhood isolation and trauma. They become experts in treating cats for ringworm. They become experts in supporting others as they foster animals who need more than what a shelter kennel can provide. They become experts in high volume laundry support to ensure the pets in the shelter have something dry and comfy to sleep on. They become experts in parvovirus care and treatment. The list goes on and on (literally!).

    I hope that volunteers at APA! see that their actions make a difference and that they are not just an “add on” to staff–they are an integral part of what makes our organization able to accomplish so much. I’m a veterinarian so forgive the anatomy analogy, but if you think of staff as the vertebrae or backbone of the organization, the volunteers and fosters are the limbs that make it possible to walk and write!

    And when I say “accomplish so much,” I mean that APA! has been able to be one of the top adoption organizations in the country (apparently the 2nd highest in the US!); is the largest foster care organization in animal welfare; and has mentored many other organizations so they can save more lives. And it is all because of our collective work. Without volunteers, it would not be possible to envision a future that ensures all pets in shelters are given the individual support they need to survive AND that prevents pets who don’t need to be there from being subjected to a shelter kennel in the first place.

    When I look at one of my own APA! adoptees, Echo, I see all the hands that made her life possible. As a semi-paralyzed and incontinent survivor of distemper, her needs passed through the hands of volunteer data support to keep her lengthy records updated, volunteer long stay trackers to ensure she was headed toward adoption, other fosters who helped carry the burden in the early stages of her disease when I was out of town, the dog marketing volunteers who made sure that she was visible to adopters, and of volunteers in our foster adoption team who helped me make her stay at our house permanent.

    I’m so thankful for what volunteers do to support the people and animals we touch every day. I know it is a cliché, but it truly does take a village to intervene in the broken national system of animal sheltering and to care for the animals that are the collateral damage of that system.

    Thank you!

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Amplify Austin

    Austin Pets Alive! | Amplify Austin

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    Feb 21, 2023

    Calling all Austinites, dog fans and cat enthusiasts! Amplify Austin 2023 is just around the corner and we need you to join us to #AmplifyLifesaving this year!

    This day of giving is very important for nonprofit organizations across Central Texas and APA! is honored to participate again this year. We want to make sure that all of our supporters that want to join in know exactly how they can help and what their support means!

    The first thing you can do to get involved is make a donation using our Amplify Austin fundraising page. Whatever the amount, your donation makes an impact. From $10, which can help purchase enrichment activity supplies to $500, which provides basic care for a litter of pups or kittens, your gift is important and saves lives.

    I Live Here I Give Here (ILHIGH), the organization that produces Amplify Austin, makes this 24-hour fundraiser extra fun through a little friendly competition between the participating nonprofits and monetary prizes for various categories!

    Matches and Incentives from ILHIGH

    • $5,000 for most dollars raised

    • $5,000 for most unique donors ← This is one of the categories we are targeting!

    • $2,500 for most dollars raised during the early giving period

    • $25,000 from an anonymous donor for animal care and services organizations ← This grant is pro-rata which means that the more we raise, the more we get out of this pool!

    • $1,000/hour for the first 6 hours of Amplify Day for most dollars raised in the hour

    • $1,000/hour for the last 6 hours of Amplify Day for most unique donors in the hour

    After you make your donation (thank you!), we’d be grateful if you’d create your own fundraising page in support of APA!. This is where voices really amplify!

    The beauty of creating your fundraising page is that you can use it to encourage your friends and family to donate to APA!, too! Everyone has their own unique voice and story as to why they support our mission and when that is shared, people feel encouraged to join you in your support! Maybe you got your dog or cat from us or maybe you’re a foster or volunteer — whatever your reason, we want to hear it and have a hunch your friends, family, and social media followers do too!

    Want to know a little bit more about what your donation can do and gather some info you can use when encouraging your friends and family to donate to APA!?

    Gift Impact

    • $500 – Provides basic medical care for a litter of puppies or kittens

    • $100 – Provides basic medical care (standard vaccinations, spay/neuter, etc.), behavior assessments, and everything necessary to take a dog or cat into APA!’s care

    • $50 – Vaccinates a litter of puppies

    • $25 – Buys one week of milk for a litter of kittens

    • $10 – Buys microchips for a couple of dogs or cats, or enrichment activities like Kongs, peanut butter, and treats

    Let’s do this, Austin!

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  • What Does It Mean to Care About COVID Anymore?

    What Does It Mean to Care About COVID Anymore?

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    After nearly three years of constantly thinking about COVID, it’s alarming how easily I can stop. The truth is, as a healthy, vaxxed-to-the-brim young person who has already had COVID, the pandemic now often feels more like an abstraction than a crisis. My perception of personal risk has dropped in recent months, as has my stamina for precautions. I still care about COVID, but I also eat in crowded cafés and go mask-free at parties.

    Heading into the third pandemic winter, things have changed. Most Americans seem to have tuned out COVID. Precautions have virtually disappeared; except for in the deepest-blue cities, wearing a mask is, well, weird. Reported cases are way down since the spring and summer, but perhaps the biggest reason for America’s behavioral let-up is that much of the country sees COVID as a minor nuisance, no more bothersome than a cold or the flu.

    And to a certain degree, they’re right: Most healthy, working-age adults who are up-to-date on their vaccinations won’t get severely ill—especially now that antivirals such as Paxlovid are available. Other treatments can help if a patient does get very sick. “People who are vaccinated and relatively healthy who are getting COVID are not getting that sick,” Lisa Lee, an epidemiologist at Virginia Tech, told me. “And so people are thinking, Wow, I’ve had COVID. It wasn’t that bad. I don’t really care anymore.”

    Still, there are many reasons to continue caring about COVID. About 300 people are still dying every day; COVID is on track to be the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. for the third year running. The prospect of developing long COVID is real and terrifying, as are mounting concerns about reinfections. But admittedly, these sometimes manifest in my mind as a dull, omnipresent horror, not an urgent affront. Continuing to care about COVID while also loosening up behaviors is an uncomfortable position to be in. Most of the time, I just try to ignore the guilt gnawing at my brain. At this point, when so few people feel that the potential benefit of dodging an infection is worth the inconvenience of precautions, what does it even mean to care about COVID?

    Read: Hundreds of Americans will die from COVID today

    In an ideal epidemiological scenario, everyone would willingly deploy the full arsenal of COVID precautions, such as masking and forgoing crowded indoor activities, especially during waves. But that kind of all-out response no longer makes sense. “It’s probably not realistic to expect people to take precautions every time, perpetually, or even every winter or fall, unless there is a particularly concerning reason to do that,” Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University, told me.

    But, now more than ever, we must remember that COVID is not just a personal threat but a community one. For older and immunocompromised people, the risks are still significant. For example, people over 50 account for 93 percent of COVID-related deaths in the U.S., even though they represent just 35.7 percent of the population. As long as the death rate remains as high as it is, caring about COVID should mean orienting precautions to protect them. This idea has been around since the pandemic began, but its prominence faded as Americans put their personal health first. “If you’re otherwise healthy, it’s so easy just to think about yourself,” Lee said. “We have to think very carefully about that other part of infectious disease, which is the part where we can potentially hurt other people.”

    Orienting behavior in this way gives low-risk people a way to care about COVID that doesn’t entail constant masking or skipping all indoor activities: They can relax when they know they aren’t going to encounter vulnerable people. Like the productivity adage “work smarter, not harder,” this perspective allows people to take precautions strategically, not always. In practice, all it takes is some foresight. If you don’t live with vulnerable people, make it second nature to ask: Will I be seeing vulnerable people anytime soon? If the answer is no, do whatever you’re comfortable with given your own risk. If you are a healthy 30-something who lives alone, going to a Friendsgiving with other people your age is different from spending Thanksgiving dinner with parents and grandparents.

    If you will be seeing someone vulnerable, the most straightforward way to avoid giving them COVID is to avoid getting infected yourself, which means wearing a good mask in public settings and minimizing your interactions with others the week before, in what some experts have called a “mini-quarantine.” Not everyone has that luxury: Parents, for example, have to send their kids to school.

    Spontaneous interactions with vulnerable people are trickier to plan for, but they follow the same principle. On a crowded bus, for example, “there’s no question that if you’re close enough to someone who could be hurt by getting COVID and you could have it, then, yeah, a mask is the way to go,” Lee said. Of course, it isn’t always possible to know when someone is high-risk; young people, too, can be medically vulnerable. There’s no clear guidance for those situations, but remaining cautious doesn’t require much effort. “Carry a mask with you,” Lee said. “It’s not a big lift.”

    Get boosted—if not for yourself, then for them. Just 11.3 percent of eligible Americans have gotten the latest, bivalent shot, which potentially reduces your chances of getting COVID and passing it along. It also means getting tested, so you know when you’re infectious, and being aware of respiratory symptoms—of any kind. Alongside COVID, the flu and RSV are putting many people in the hospital, especially the very young and the very old. No matter how low your personal risk, if you have symptoms, avoiding transmission is crucial. “A reasonable thing to prioritize is: If you have symptoms, take care to prevent it from spreading,” Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told me.

    Read: It’s a bad time to be a booster slacker

    As we move away from a personal approach to COVID, we have an opportunity to expand the idea of what caring looks like. Low-risk people can, and should, take an active role in bolstering the protection of vulnerable people they know. In practical terms, this means ensuring that people in your life who are over 50—especially those over 65—are boosted and have a plan to get Paxlovid if they fall sick, Nuzzo said. “I think our biggest problem right now is that not everybody has enough access to the tools, and that’s a place where people can help.” She noted that she is particularly concerned about older people who struggle to book vaccine appointments online. Caring “doesn’t mean abstaining, per se. It means facilitating. It means enabling and helping people in your community.” This holiday season, caring could mean sitting down at a computer to make Grandma’s booster appointment, or driving her to the drugstore to get it.

    If you have lost your motivation to care about COVID, you might find it in the people you love. I didn’t feel a personal need to wear a mask at the concert I attended yesterday, but I did it because I don’t want to accidentally infect my partner’s 94-year-old grandfather when I see him next week. To have this experience of the pandemic is a privilege. Many don’t have the option to stop caring, even for a moment.

    Barring another Omicron-esque event, we thankfully won’t ever return to a moment where Americans obsess over COVID en masse. But this virus isn’t going away, so we can’t escape having a population that is split between the high-risk minority and the low-risk majority. Rethinking what it means to care allows for a more nuanced and liveable idea of what responsible behavior looks like. Right now, Nuzzo told me, the language we use to describe one’s position on COVID is “black-and-white, absolutist—you either care or you don’t.” There is space between those extremes. At least for now, it’s the only way to compromise between the world we have and the world we want.

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    Yasmin Tayag

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Quiet Young Kitten Needs a Cardiologist so She…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Quiet Young Kitten Needs a Cardiologist so She…

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    Nov 17, 2022

    Kesha 21 is truly an Austin Pets Alive! kitten. This 3-month-old kitty
    was born in our care, and raised in the APA! nursery program. She’s what
    we call a “neonatal graduate”—and yes it’s all right to picture her
    sweet self in a teeny cap and gown.

    But when Kesha 21 got her spay surgery, our veterinarians discovered some heart issues that she’d likely been born with. Further examinations led our vets to believe that Kesha 21 has advanced pulmonic stenosis—a rare condition in cats.

    Having this condition means that one of Kesha 21’s heart valves is too
    narrow, making it hard for her body to get blood to her lungs. It’s not
    just affecting her health. Kesha 21’s personality is affected, too.
    She’s gotten a little more quiet as her heart issues have progressed.

    The veterinarians say things will get worse for Kesha 21, if she doesn’t begin work with a cardiologist. The
    blockage of blood flow is putting extra strain     on her heart, which
    could cause Kesha 21 to faint or even go into heart failure.
    She will get short of breath, and exhausted, from the ordinary playing
    and running that most kittens are able to enjoy. We don’t yet know if
    the pulmonic stenosis will affect Kesha 21’s lifespan.

    A cardiologist who we’ve partnered with before to correct animals’ heart
    problems can consult with Kesha 21 and give her the specialty treatment
    she needs. Kesha 21 may be a candidate for surgery, or her condition
    could be

    managed through medication. After initial treatment, this young
    kitten will likely need more monitoring still, so we can keep an eye on
    that tiny ticker and keep Kesha 21 as healthy and well as she can be,
    for as long as we can.

    Kesha 21’s care is going to be very expensive. Just the initial cardiac consultation will cost $5,000.

    While some shelters would give up on a young kitten who needed such
    expensive care at such a tender age, we know our community is with us in
    believing with all our hearts that Kesha 21 deserves the opportunity to
    live, and to live well.

    With a woof, a purr, and a thanks,

    The APA! Team

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  • Doctors Are Failing Patients With Disabilities

    Doctors Are Failing Patients With Disabilities

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    This piece was originally published by Undark Magazine.

    Ben Salentine, the associate director of health-sciences managed care at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, hasn’t been weighed in more than a decade. His doctors “just kind of guess” his weight, he says, because they don’t have a wheelchair-accessible scale.

    He’s far from alone. Many people with disabilities describe challenges in finding physicians prepared to care for them. “You would assume that medical spaces would be the most accessible places there are, and they’re not,” says Angel Miles, a rehabilitation-program specialist at the Administration for Community Living, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Not only do many clinics lack the necessary equipment—such as scales that can accommodate people who use wheelchairs—but at least some physicians actively avoid patients with disabilities, using excuses like “I’m not taking new patients” or “You need a specialist,” according to a paper in the October 2022 issue of Health Affairs.

    The work, which analyzed focus-group discussions with 22 physicians, adds context to a larger study published in February 2021 (also in Health Affairs) that showed that only 56 percent of doctors “strongly” welcome patients with disabilities into their practice. Less than half were “very confident” that they could provide the same quality of care to people with disabilities as they could to other patients. The studies add to a larger body of research suggesting that patients with conditions that doctors may deem difficult to treat often struggle to find quality care. The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) theoretically protects the one in four adults in the U.S. with a disability from discrimination in public and private medical practices—but enforcing it is a challenge.

    Laura VanPuymbrouck, an assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Rush University, calls the 2021 survey “groundbreaking—it was the crack that broke the dam a little bit.” Now researchers are hoping that medical schools, payers, and the Joint Commission (a group that accredits hospitals) will push health-care providers for more equitable care.

    Due in part to scant data, information about health care for people with disabilities is limited, according to Tara Lagu, a co-author of both the 2021 and 2022 papers and the director of the Institute for Public Health and Medicine’s Center for Health Services & Outcomes Research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The few studies that have been done suggest that people with disabilities get preventive care less frequently and have worse outcomes than their nondisabled counterparts.

    About a decade ago, Lagu was discharging a patient who was partially paralyzed and used a wheelchair. The patient’s discharge notes repeatedly recommended an appointment with a specialist, but it hadn’t happened. Lagu asked why. Eventually, the patient’s adult daughter told Lagu that she hadn’t been able to find a specialist who would see a patient in a wheelchair. Incredulous, Lagu started making calls. “I could not find that kind of doctor within 100 miles of her house who would see her,” she says, “unless she came in an ambulance and was transferred to an exam table by EMS—which would have cost her family more than $1,000 out of pocket.”

    In recent years, studies have shown that even when patients with disabilities can see physicians, their doctors’ biases toward conditions such as obesity, intellectual disabilities, and substance-use disorders can have profound impacts on the care they receive. Physicians may assume that an individual’s symptoms are caused by obesity and tell them to lose weight before considering tests.

    For one patient, this meant a seriously delayed diagnosis of lung cancer. Patients with mobility or intellectual challenges are often assumed to be celibate, so their providers skip any discussion of sexual health. Those in wheelchairs may not get weighed even if they’re pregnant—a time when tracking one’s weight is especially important, because gaining too little or too much is associated with the baby being at risk for developmental delays or the mother being at risk for complications during delivery.

    These issues are well known to Lisa Iezzoni, a health-policy researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Over the past 25 years, Iezzoni has interviewed about 300 people with disabilities for her research into their health-care experiences and outcomes, and she realized that “every single person with a disability tells me their doctors don’t respect them, has erroneous assumptions about them, or is clueless about how to provide care.” In 2016, she decided it was time to talk to doctors. Once the National Institutes of Health funded the work, she and Lagu recruited the 714 physicians that took the survey for the study published in 2021 in Health Affairs.

    Not only did many doctors report feeling incapable of properly caring for people with disabilities, but a large majority held the false belief that those patients have a worse quality of life, which could prompt them to offer fewer treatment options.

    During the 2021 study, Iezzoni’s team recorded three focus-group discussions with 22 anonymous physicians. Although the open-ended discussions weren’t included in the initial publication, Lagu says she was “completely shocked” by some of the comments. Some doctors in the focus groups welcomed the idea of additional education to help them better care for patients with disabilities, but others said that they were overburdened and that the 15 minutes typically allotted for office visits aren’t enough to provide these patients with proper care. Still others “started to describe that they felt these patients were a burden and that they would discharge patients with disability from their practice,” Lagu says. “We had to write it up.”

    Read: How wheelchair accessibility ramped up

    The American Medical Association, the largest professional organization representing doctors, declined an interview request and would not comment on the most recent Health Affairs study. When asked about the organization’s policies on caring for patients with disabilities, a representative pointed to the AMA’s strategic plan, which includes a commitment to equity.

    Patients with disabilities are supposed to be protected by law. Nearly 50 years ago, Congress passed Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibited any programs that receive federal funding, such as Medicare and Medicaid, from excluding or discriminating against individuals with disabilities. In 1990, the ADA mandated that public and private institutions also provide these protections.

    The ADA offers some guidelines for accessible buildings, including requiring ramps, but it does not specify details about medical equipment, such as adjustable exam tables and wheelchair-accessible scales. Although these items are necessary to provide adequate care for many people with disabilities, many facilities lack them: In a recent California survey, for instance, only 19.1 percent of doctor’s offices had adjustable exam tables, and only 10.9 percent had wheelchair-accessible scales.

    Miles says she’s noticed an improvement in care since the ADA went into effect, but she still frequently experiences challenges in health care as a Black woman who uses a wheelchair. “We need to keep in mind the ADA is not a building code. It’s a civil-rights law,” says Heidi Johnson-Wright, an ADA coordinator for Miami-Dade County in Florida, who was not speaking on behalf of the county. “If I don’t have access to a wellness check at a doctor’s office or treatment at a hospital, then you’re basically denying me my civil rights.”

    The ADA isn’t easy to enforce. There are no “ADA police,” Johnson-Wright says, to check if doctor’s offices and hospitals are accessible. In many cases, a private citizen or the Department of Justice has to sue a business or an institution believed to be in violation of the ADA. Lawyers have filed more than 10,000 ADA Title III lawsuits each year since 2018. Some people, sympathizing with businesses and doctors, accuse the plaintiffs of profiteering.

    And it’s not just about accessible equipment. In 2018, the Justice Department sued a skilled nursing facility for violating the ADA, after the facility refused to treat a patient with a substance-use disorder who needed medication to help maintain sobriety. Since then, the department settled with eight other skilled nursing facilities for similar discrimination. “It is a violation of the ADA” to deny someone care based on the medications they need, Sarah Wakeman, an addiction-medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, wrote in an email, “and yet continues to happen.”

    Indeed, in the focus groups led by Lagu and Iezzoni, some of the doctors revealed that they view the ADA and the people it protects with contempt. One called people with disabilities “an entitled population.” Another said that the ADA works “against physicians.”

    The Department of Health and Human Services is aware of the issue. In a response to emailed questions, an HHS spokesperson wrote, “While we recognize the progress of the ADA, important work remains to uphold the rights of people with disabilities.” The Office of Civil Rights, the spokesperson continued, “has taken a number of important actions to ensure that health care providers do not deny health care to individuals on the basis of disability and to guarantee that people with disabilities have full access to reasonable accommodations when receiving health care and human services, free of discriminatory barriers and bias.”

    Researchers and advocates told me that the key to improving health care for those with disabilities is addressing it directly in medical education and training. “People with disabilities are probably one of the larger populations” that physicians serve, Salentine said.

    Ryan McGraw, a community organizer with Access Living, helps provide education about treating patients with disabilities to medical schools in the Chicago area. He regularly receives positive feedback from medical students but says the information needs to be embedded in the medical-school curriculum, so it’s not “one and done.”

    In one effort to address the issue, the Alliance for Disabilities in Health Care Education, a coalition of professionals and educators of which McGraw is a member, put together a list of 10 core competencies that should be included in a doctor’s education, including considerations for accessibility, effective communication, and patient-centered decision making.

    Read: What police offers don’t know about the ADA

    One of the simplest solutions might be hanging signs or providing accessible information in exam rooms on patients’ rights. “It’d be there for patients, but it’d be also there as a reminder to the providers. I think that’s a super easy thing to do,” Laura VanPuymbrouck says. Miles says this could be a good start, but “it’s not enough to just give people a little pamphlet that tells you about your rights as a patient.” Although all doctors should be willing and able to care for patients with disabilities, she thinks a registry that shows which providers take certain types of insurance, such as Medicaid, and also have disability accommodations, such as wheelchair-accessible equipment, would go a long way.

    Some advocates have called on the Joint Commission for more than 10 years to require disability accommodations for hospitals that want accreditation. The step could be effective, because accreditation “is extremely important” to hospitals, Lagu says.

    On January 1, 2023, new Joint Commission guidelines will require that hospitals create plans to identify and reduce at least one health-care disparity among their patients. Improving outcomes for people with disabilities could be one such goal. However, Maureen Lyons, a spokesperson for the Joint Commission, adds, “if individuals circumvent the law, standards won’t be any more effective.”

    Finally, Lagu says, “we have to pay more when you are providing accommodations that take time or cost money. There’s got to be some accounting for that in the way we pay physicians.”

    One of the most basic things people with disabilities are asking for is respect. The biggest finding of the 2021 survey, Iezzoni says, is that doctors don’t realize that the proper way to determine what accommodations a facility needs for patients with disabilities is to just ask the patients.

    “I can’t tell you how many times I go to a doctor’s office and I’m talking, but they’re not hearing anything,” Salentine says. “They’re ready to speak over me.”

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    Emma Yasinski

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Austin Animal Welfare Policy in 2023

    Austin Pets Alive! | Austin Animal Welfare Policy in 2023

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    Nov 04, 2022

    When I moved to Austin in the 90s, the city looked much different than it does today. The population stood under 600,000, what would become a booming tech culture was in its infancy, traffic was manageable, and the city’s weirdly famous motto wasn’t even a thing. Austin was also more than a decade away from being heralded as a leading No Kill city in the United States.

    I can still feel the revulsion that jolted through me when I learned that 85% of pets—more than 25,000—were killed in the city shelter each year. Wriggly, energetic puppies and kittens. Healthy cats. Sweet dogs who were licking people’s faces as they were being injected with lethal doses of pentobarbital. The state of animal welfare in late 1990s Austin sat in stark contrast to the city’s identity as a burgeoning epicenter of innovation.

    Austinites knew their city could do better, and the community fought and won a battle to become one of the nation’s leading No Kill cities. We went from 85% of pets being killed to more than 95% of pets leaving the shelter alive. Austin’s No Kill status—11 years running—is one of the gems that makes Austin, Austin. And it’s at risk.

    Now the 11th largest city in the nation, Austin is at a pivotal moment in history. With rapid growth has come pain points such as affordability, housing limitations, and unintentional neglect of the things that make Austin stand out. The effects of these pain points extend to animal welfare.

    From the bats under Congress Avenue bridge that have been dying off year after year, to Austin’s renowned status as the largest No Kill city in the U.S. being under fire, we know that now is the time to protect what so many people in Austin care deeply about.

    With a new council coming in, there is tremendous potential for progress to be made or progress to be lost.

    To keep Austin No Kill we must develop a comprehensive, citywide approach to animal welfare. There is no other city that has done this, and Austin can and should be the first.

    If we lean into progress, it can mean an even larger economic impact than No Kill alone has realized, and it can be a crown jewel of Austin that ties many of the city’s major initiatives together.

    On the surface, this challenge appears daunting. But if we look deeper we can see that animal welfare leaders do not have to work alone. Seven out of 10 Austin households have pets and almost all view their pets as family members. This is one of the largest and most passionate groups of people in Austin.

    As a city, we need to do more to engage with pet owners and utilize animal welfare issues to secure support for Austin overall. If we band together as a community to implement community-wide solutions, we can ensure that all pets are given the chance to live.

    The following steps will bring us closer to creating that approach and making No Kill permanent in Austin:

    Conduct a comprehensive study of Austin pet owners.

    To better support people with pets, there should be an Austin-wide study to really understand how major systemic societal problems affect pet owners and their companion animals.

    We know that pet ownership transcends all demographics. We also know that many pet owners are struggling under the weight of significant financial burdens that have increased because of Austin’s dramatic and rapid growth. Now we need to know more about the specific struggles so we can support residents in ways that keep them with their pets.

    When we help pets in crisis we are also helping humans in crisis. For example, over 70% of women in domestic violence shelters report that their abuser threatened, injured, or killed a pet as a means of control. Nearly half of domestic abuse survivors delayed leaving their abuser because they could not take their pets with them. People’s worries about pet care can lead them to put off medical treatment, or to leave the hospital early.

    There are many more examples, involving people experiencing housing insecurity, at-risk older residents and youth, and groups facing numerous other challenges that demonstrate the interconnectedness between people’s and pets’ well-being. These clearly make the case for helping pets, while helping the people who love them.

    Once we understand more, we can dive deep into solutions to support pet owners with the top problems that humans and pets face together.

    Weave pet ownership through a wide range of city communications.

    Pet ownership in Austin translates into lower crime rates, and greater mental and physical health of community members, leading to decreased healthcare costs, and a lot more money entering the local economy. Let’s look at the key drivers and obstacles for pet owners, and work on talking to and about them in many more of our citywide communications. More pet owners means a healthier city overall.

    Form an economic development task force to make Austin the epicenter of the booming corporate pet industry.

    The pet industry is poised to almost double to $240B by 2030. But no city is yet capitalizing on this enormous opportunity.

    Austin is a natural fit to become the corporate headquarters for so many pet-related companies as progress is made in this relatively new industry. The city could provide incentives for green programming in areas such as pet food, which is a top contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and for for-profit companies to form partnerships with sheltering nonprofits to modernize the archaic dog pound industry to save more lives. Austin-based companies could be incentivized to develop fireworks that don’t kill native wildlife and create pet products that are earth-friendly and recyclable.

    Making Austin the epicenter of the booming pet industry would put Austin on the map in yet another distinct way and contribute to the local economy through conferences, even more pet-friendly businesses, and local spending.

    Create an innovation task force to make Austin the home of the first wraparound human + animal welfare system in the world.

    Austin has been the largest No Kill city in the U.S. for 11 years. It is time for Austin to lead in a much more comprehensive and effective way. This city should be the home of the next social innovation in animal welfare, where the community, animal services, and human services operate as one.

    Right now, animal services tend to be reacting to what has been historically viewed as an “irresponsible public.” When someone is struggling to care for their pets, due to job loss, housing insecurity, or for another reason, they may not know about or have access to options beyond giving up their pet to an overcrowded shelter.

    With a comprehensive makeover focused on dignity and preservation of the human-animal bond, the city shelter could instead be the go-to place for support—including crisis boarding for owned pets whose owners are hospitalized or otherwise temporarily can’t care for them; support for fighting housing restrictions; pet sitting for people experiencing homelessness who need a safe place for their dog to stay while they attend a job interview or court date; full spectrum veterinary care for low-income pet owners; at-risk youth programs to introduce careers in animal welfare; other workforce development opportunities; and much more.

    The city could also be the best in the world when it comes to how our hospitals, our police, our builders, and our fire/EMS services operate, by including pet specifics in training, metrics, and vision.

    Tackling comprehensive citywide problems through the lens of pet ownership offers a manageable vein of solutions and can serve as an example for the next lens of comprehensive problem solving.

    Bring civic engagement departments and organizations together to find common ground with pet owners.

    Pet owners are passionate about their pets. Pets are linked to higher self confidence and increased civic engagement. Pet owners report stronger neighborhood social connections than non-pet owners, with greater degrees of trust between neighbors.

    The trust inherent in these connections can be used to create mutual aid channels for pet owners in crisis and to increase civic engagement in areas that are tangentially related to animals, such as increasing participation and recruitment in Austin’s 100 boards and commissions. Every single one touches animals in some way and building excitement about topics that don’t generally drive the most participation leads to a stronger community led by community members.

    Task the Austin Animal Advisory Commission with developing a plan for Austin Animal Center to sustainably operate as a No Kill facility, and also to lead, support, and mentor other jurisdictions on No Kill.

    In 2010, the City Council approved a No Kill plan that they had tasked the Austin Animal Advisory Commission to create, using cities with an over 90% live release rate as their only resource. That single resolution has now resulted, conservatively, in over $200M in economic impact for the city of Austin and hundreds of thousands of lives saved.This figure is based on a 2017 report measuring the economic impact of the No Kill resolution from 2010 until 2016. At that time, the figure was over $157,000,000. In the six years since, it is fair to estimate that number has at least doubled.

    Now the city council can have the same groundbreaking No Kill success by tasking the commission with a similar request—this time two-fold:

    1. Create a plan to develop the most important standard operating procedures for saving the myriad lives that enter the Animal Center doors, using only cities/programs that have the same or higher live release rates as models for each type of at-risk animal population or program.

    2. Create a plan to teach these standard operating procedures to shelters all over the country. This not only solves the chronic problems that are inevitably associated with saving lives instead of killing them by offering quality assurance and oversight internally, but also positions Austin as the city to watch as No Kill becomes stronger and even more successful.

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | URGENT HEAT HELP – Friday Update

    Austin Pets Alive! | URGENT HEAT HELP – Friday Update

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    Jun 10, 2022

    The weather is forecasted to be brutally hot this weekend, starting at 100 degrees today and going up to 104 tomorrow. Even though the heat is bad enough, we know that this could get much worse if there are any power outages. The more we do TODAY, the more likely we are to stay on top of any catastrophic changes that may arise without warning. You can help us get the resources we need to stay ahead of the danger by giving NOW.

    By making a gift today, you immediately help us keep animals safe. But there are several more ways you can help. Just like with Winter Storm Uri, we know we have to tackle this emergency with a three-prong approach.

    1. The pets in our care: The most important thing we need today is to move as many dogs as possible to foster homes where they can get out of the deadly heat. Despite the work that has gone into improving our facilities with more shade and misters, this weather is still extremely dangerous for our most vulnerable dogs.

    We need fosters and adopters to show up from 12-6 p.m. and help by taking home a dog while we get through this triple-digit heat wave.

    2. The pets in our community: Triple-digit heat waves like this can kill pets much faster than people. You can save animals NOW by posting on NextDoor asking neighbors to put water out for wildlife and community cats. If you can, offer to help a neighbor who has an outdoor dog with shade, ice, lots of water and even fans, and ask folks to keep pets indoors from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. each day to avoid accidental heatstroke. Our Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender (P.A.S.S.) Program ([email protected]) is also standing by to connect people to hot weather supplies and advice.

    We have put up signs along the trails around Town Lake warning of heat stroke in dogs and we have sent press releases to the media almost every day this week. We need your help continuing to spread the word that this 100+ degree weather will kill.

    3. The pets in Texas: Austin is very fortunate to have so much love for pets in need, as many communities do not have the same resources. Our American Pets Alive! team regularly helps shelters in these communities treat illnesses and get more pets adopted instead of euthanized. Right now, those communities have asked for support in keeping pets cool. We are preparing large transports of supplies to these shelters tomorrow and through the weekend to include fans, misters, and kongs that can be frozen.

    You can help us support these communities in Texas with the supplies they need to keep shelter pets safe by making a gift NOW.

    Thank you for supporting pets during this weather emergency. We know how important the lives of companion animals are to you and we are so grateful for your teamwork to make sure pets are safe.

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  • BookJane Partners With OneHSN to Solve Labor Shortages in Childcare Centres in North America

    BookJane Partners With OneHSN to Solve Labor Shortages in Childcare Centres in North America

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    Press Release
    –

    Mar 31, 2022


    TORONTO, March 31, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    BookJane is pleased to announce that they have partnered with One Human Service Network (OneHSN) to support up to 450 childcare providers across the District of Columba, with their innovative, leading-edge shift call out platform.

    BookJane will make it easier for childcare centers to fill shifts with highly qualified staff by automating and enhancing the shift callout process while also connecting to a substitute pool of qualified childcare workers for facilities to leverage when shifts cannot be filled in real-time. 

    Childcare providers in the District of Columbia area have been experiencing severe staffing shortages as COVID-19 exacerbated already short supplies of qualified childcare workers. Limiting accessibility to affordable childcare and jeopardizing economic recovery as parents are prevented from returning to work to care for their children. 

    By implementing BookJane, childcare centres will be able to use their workforce more efficiently by instantly connecting with available, under-utilized staff and empowering them to accept new shifts based on their own personal availability. This gives the workforce the flexibility to work when they want. With the J360 Workforce, the District of Columbia will be able to reduce administration time by over 50% and increase staff retention by 15-25%.

    With the J360 Workforce will equip childcare centers with a full suite of capabilities, including: 

    • Automated call-out to instantly broadcast open shifts to available staff in real-time
    • The childcare workers will have access to a mobile app to centralize all shift information and empower staff to accept new shifts 
    • Team communications to centralize all announcements and messaging
    • End-to-End scheduling to create, manage and monitor complex schedules
    • Childcare agency integration to access a wider pool of available qualified staff 

    “We are thrilled to be partnering with OneHSN to transform childcare in the District of Columbia,” says Curtis Khan, CEO and Founder of BookJane. “Innovative technology plays an important role in delivering quality care. With the J360 Workforce, Childcare centers will not only be able to improve the efficiency of their childcare centers and ensure they are providing the best care possible, but they will also be able to offer more flexibility and control to staff which is vital to recruitment and retention.”

    About BookJane 

    BookJane is an award-winning shift fulfillment platform transforming the way healthcare facilities across North America schedule and fulfill shifts. Their all-in-one platform streamlines complex call out, connecting qualified internal and external workers force to open shifts through their centralized Mobile App. With BookJane, facilities can easily engage staff, manage open shifts, and fulfill vacancies with automated and rule-based shift callouts, eliminating the administrative burden of scheduling, so they can focus on what matters most: caring for clients.

    Learn more at www.bookjane.com

    For more information:

    Contact:

    Mallory Tretter

    Email: mallory.tretter@bookjane.com

    Phone: 416-859-2229

    Source: BookJane

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Austin Pets Alive! President and CEO Gives…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Austin Pets Alive! President and CEO Gives…

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    Jul 22, 2021

    The City of Austin’s Animal Advisory Commission recently created a Working Group to focus on Austin Animal Center’s shelter space concerns. The Commission held a Special Called meeting this past Monday to discuss the findings of the Working Group as well as hear APA!’s quarterly report. At Monday’s Animal Advisory Commission, APA! President and CEO, Dr. Ellen Jefferson presented. Below is a summary of her comments to the Commission.

    Austin Pets Alive! is the largest city of Austin Animal Services partner in lifesaving and the largest subsidizer of the city’s budget to serve Austin animals.

    APA! takes animals that have medical and behavioral issues that require a higher cost per animal than the average healthy animal and care. APA! focuses on these animals in an effort to have a measurable effect on the live release rate at Austin Animal Center (AAC).

    In June alone, of all the animals that were transferred from AAC to any partner, APA! took 77% of those animals and over 200 times the number taken by the other brick and mortar shelters in Austin.

    APA!’s cost to care for the animals pulled this past quarter was approximately $500,000 – $750,000. These numbers are currently being validated through an external agency and will be reflected as accurately as possible in future reports.

    APA! receives no funding from the City of Austin but through a license agreement does receive use of the Town Lake Animal Center (TLAC) facility, which on the rental market could reasonably expect to receive about $8 per square foot per year in rent for the use (kennel), the condition its in (deteriorated), and the location it is in which, at best, is $100,000 per quarter. APA! therefore contributed between $400,000-$650,000 last quarter alone to subsidize the city’s budget to serve Austin animals. That is just for the animals we’re taking in from AAC, not for the other work we’re doing in the community.

    APA!’s mission is to eliminate the unnecessary killing of shelter animals. Over the last 10 years of this license agreement, the role of APA’s support at AAC has shifted away from lifesaving and into serving as overflow for Austin Animal Center, which was never the intention of the license agreement that was drafted 10 years ago. That’s what we’ve been trying to re-negotiate for the last five years. What that means is that Austin Pets Alive! is serving many animals that should not be at risk of euthenasia in the city’s publicly-funded shelter.

    AAC has received an increase in budget of more than $10 million since the original license agreement was signed, and many supports have been put in place over the years by the Austin City Council. APA! is 100% committed to continuing to serve as a safety net for animals that cannot be saved through taxpayer dollars and is currently negotiating a license agreement that more accurately reflects the mission of APA! and the responsible utilization of all the funds put towards animals, whether they are donated or taxpayer-funded.

    You can find the complete 2nd Quarter Report from APA! to the Animal Advisory Commission here.

    You can watch the complete meeting here.

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | APA! Steps Up for Pets from Laredo Shelter,…

    Austin Pets Alive! | APA! Steps Up for Pets from Laredo Shelter,…

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    Jun 29, 2021

    AUSTIN, TX – Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) is asking people to help at-risk pets in crowded Texas animal shelters. APA!’s Town Lake Animal Center is currently at capacity. APA! is asking the Central Texas community to foster, adopt, volunteer or donate so APA! can continue helping dogs, puppies, cats and kittens with the greatest medical and behavioral needs.

    Laredo Animal Care Services reached out to American Pets Alive!, APA!’s education and outreach division, to help out with its overpopulation. American Pets Alive! responded to their request and just sent this video. Dozens of cats and kittens are being rescued right now and need foster homes within the next 24 hours. Anyone able to foster a cat or kitten is asked to please email [email protected].

    At the Laredo shelter’s request, American Pets Alive! traveled to the shelter not only to provide rescue and transport, but to train the Laredo staff on sanitation practices and community engagement programs. The American Pets Alive! team is on the way back to Austin now bringing some of the pets to safety, to treat medical needs and get every single pet directly into a foster home as fast as possible. You can find out more about the current state of the Laredo Animal Care Services facility here.

    Austin Pets Alive! And American Pets Alive! are grateful to partners at Texas shelters who know that these animals are escaping dangerous environments.

    While we know these pets will be saved from euthanasia, the rest of their future is uncertain. Rush a donation today to ensure they make it into loving arms.

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Austin Pets Alive! Hits Goal of 1,000 Shelter…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Austin Pets Alive! Hits Goal of 1,000 Shelter…

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    Mar 23, 2021

    AUSTIN, TX — On Wednesday morning March 24th, Austin Pets Alive! placed 27 cats onto a private plane bound for Wichita, KS, culminating a weeks-long effort to transport 1,000 at-risk pets to safe shelters in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri. This is the third transport flight that David Nelson, the owner and pilot of the plane, has donated on APA!’s behalf. By offering his plane, fuel, time and resources, David has played an integral role in APA!’s transport missions that began in late February.

    Charlie, the 1,000th animal transported.

    Upon landing in Wichita, the kitties will be met at the receiving airport by staff members from KC Pet Project, who will then drive the cats the rest of the way to their shelter to be put up for adoption. This feline-focused transport represents a significant milestone that was only made possible through the support of countless volunteers, donors, and animal welfare advocates.

    Map updated 3.23

    After the devastating winter storm that hit Texas just a few weeks ago, APA! responded to urgent pleas for help from small, rural shelters across the state that lacked resources to care for all the pets that were suddenly arriving through their doors. The APA! Town Lake facility became a central transport hub for these pets in need, while shelter partners across the country organized the next leg of transportation to reach their final destinations. From Florida to Washington to Massachusetts, animal shelter staff across the continental U.S. welcomed these vulnerable pets with open arms, providing safe shelter and care to get them ready for adoption within their respective new communities.

    Additional photos and videos of this transport are available for press upon request. Please contact [email protected]

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