We became a no-kill shelter in 2006, providing the only no-kill shelter option for homeless animals in Bay County. The HSBC’s purpose is to shelter and locate homes for homeless animals through adoptions. Founded in 1980, a small group of people concerned about the quality of life and animal welfare issues in Bay County formed the HSBC. That's why it is essential for communities to create collaborative and compassionate spaces committed to lifesaving, so that shelters feel supported and open to change.The Humane Society of Bay County (HSBC) has been serving homeless animals for 40 years and is one of the only no-kill shelters in the Panhandle of Florida. Still others have been asked by their governments to bear a disproportionate portion of the burden to solve the problem without being given the resources necessary for success. Some shelters have yet to embrace the no-kill philosophy simply because they've never known another way of doing things, while others are afraid to ask for help for fear of being criticized or attacked. Such labels can prevent people from supporting their local shelter, when support is often exactly what that shelter needs. However, Best Friends does not use the term "kill shelter" because that term is inflammatory and could erroneously suggest that shelters are to blame for killing pets when, in fact, the responsibility to save all the savable pets rests with all of us. It's important to distinguish between the two, so that collectively we can work to end preventable deaths. A common first step for most shelters is to conduct a gap analysis to determine their lifesaving needs.īest Friends distinguishes between the terms "killed" and "euthanized" because killing is something we want to prevent and euthanizing, when it is a true mercy, is something we support. For example, if a particular shelter is saving homeless dogs successfully but is struggling to reduce the number of free-roaming cats entering the shelter, staff may need to prioritize implementing a community cat program and training animal control officers to engage effectively with residents to address cat-related issues. Various other programs, such as neonatal kitten nurseries and transport programsĬollecting accurate and current data on how many and what types of animals are entering and leaving shelters helps shelter leadership decide exactly which lifesaving programs are needed most in their community.Community cat programs that use trap-neuter-return (TNR) and return-to-field (RTF) strategies to keep unowned, free-roaming cats (aka stray or feral cats) out of shelters. Adoption and community foster programs to drastically minimize the amount of time animals spend in shelters.
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