Heather Allen, HALO Animal Rescue, President and CEO

The public outrage that occurs during a breaking story about an animal shelter destroying an animal when it doesn't "need" to be humanely euthanized is a reminder to me: 

The vast majority of the animal-loving population in this country does not have a good understanding of what is happening to the animals in their community.

Maricopa County, Arizona, is home to the second largest animal welfare intake system in the United States.  In numbers, this equates to 94,000 dogs and cats entering the shelter doors of the four shelters that make up The AZ Humane Society (AHS) and Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (MCACC) in 2011.  There are also two large "no-kill" shelters who partner with AHS and MCACC by way of taking animals from their shelters who aren't ready for adoption at the time they're brought to AHS or MCACC.  These two shelters are HALO Animal Rescue (HALO) and The Arizona Animal Welfare League & SPCA (AAWL). There are also a few other smaller shelters as well as a few hundred foster-based organizations that rescue animals from the streets, AHS, MCACC as well as other parts of the state and country. 

I am the co-founder and CEO of HALO Animal Rescue.  My mother and I started HALO in 1994 after fostering for a cat-only rescue organization that has since dissolved.  I'm a Phoenix native, an ASU graduate, a mother of two wonderful children and a MAJOR animal lover.  I was the kid who walked dogs in the neighborhood because I didn't have a dog of my own.  At age 12 I got my first dog and enrolled in the 4-H Dog Project where I began my journey of falling deeply in love with dogs, sucking up knowledge about breeds, behaviors and medical issues.  I have watched animal welfare in Phoenix evolve quite a bit since 1994, and I've also witnessed many things that I personally would like to see change.  I'm currently the Chair of the Alliance for Companion Animals, a group of animal welfare agencies in Phoenix who meet at least once a month to discuss issues and create strategies on how we can all best use our collective resources to save more lives.  This letter is meant to inform the public about what is happening in Phoenix, and hopefully encourage those that are now informed to take action.

To truly discuss and understand the animal crisis, and it certainly is a perpetual crisis, that is happening here, it is important to understand some definitions* first:

Live Release Rate (LRR)-is a measurement to quantify, in a percentage, how many of the animals that a shelter takes in, leave their shelter alive.  They don't just count adoptions to come up with the LRR; animals that are transferred to other rescues, and animals that are returned to their owners (or caretakers in the case of community cats) also count in creating the Live Release Rate.  What doesn't count against the LRR are animals that are brought to shelters by their owners to be euthanized and animals that die within the shelter system on their own.

Open Intake Shelter-refers to a shelter, whether a private non-profit or a governmental agency, that takes in all animals that come their way, whether they have the space and/or the resources to provide care for them or not.  MCACC and AHS are Open Intake shelters. 

Limited Admission aka No-kill Shelter - refers to a shelter, whether a private non-profit or a governmental agency, that limits the number of animals they take in to their care based on the space and financial resources they can provide to each animal.  Limited Admission shelters generally focus on animals that are "savable", meaning, ones that are adoptable or can be made adoptable.  Being a no-kill shelter does not mean an animal is never euthanized; it means an animal isn't euthanized due to lack of space or having a treatable condition.  

Savable- This is a term that you may not find on a website, but a term I find to be the most important.  When looking at the population of animals that arrive at the shelters, focus should first be place those that are the most savable, meaning, the ones that the public will want most, while weighing the extent of the care they'll need with resources available. 

Healthy-The term "healthy" means and includes all dogs and cats eight weeks of age or older that, at or subsequent to the time the animal is taken into possession, have manifested no sign of a behavioral or temperamental characteristic that could pose a health or safety risk or otherwise make the animal unsuitable for placement as a pet, and have manifested no sign of disease, injury, a congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of the animal or that is likely to adversely affect the animal's health in the future. Healthy does not include  nursing mothers, frightened animals who act shy, babies under 8 weeks of age regardless of whether they're weaned and otherwise healthy, nor animals with a mild illness like a cold, even if that cold was caught while in a shelter's care.

Treatable-The term "treatable" means and includes all dogs and cats who are "rehabilitatable" and all dogs and cats who can be managed with foster, behavioral or other care.  This does not refer to animals who are determined to pose a significant risk to human health or safety or to the health or safety of other animals.

Unhealthy/Untreatable-the term refers to animals who, at the time they arrive at the shelter, have a behavior/temperament that poses a health or safety risk to humans or other animals and are not likely to become "healthy" or "treatable" even with typical care; are suffering from a disease, injury or congenital condition that is/likely to adversely affect the animal's health and not likely to become "healthy" or "treatable" with typical care; or are under 8 weeks of age and are not likely to become "healthy" or "treatable"  with typical care.

The Live Release Rate for the Open Admission shelters in Maricopa County, collectively, is 51% for 2011.

MCACC takes in the majority of the homeless dogs while AHS takes in the majority of the homeless cats.

4 out of 5 cats who enter Phoenix Open Admissions Shelters are killed. 

2 out of 5 dogs who enter Phoenix Open Admission Shelters are killed.

If you are startled or outraged by these statistics, consider yourself an animal lover who is now educated about just how bad the crisis is in Phoenix.  Why are they being killed? About 11,000 of the 47,000 deaths fall in to the Treatable category; these animals are nursing mothers, nursing babies, injured (but not beyond reasonable repair), have a cold, need their teeth cleaned, have an ear infection, are under 8 weeks of age but eating on their own or are fearful, and therefore, need extra handling or to move to a foster home to gain confidence.

If you have heard shelters in the area say "we haven't euthanized a healthy animal since October 2005" they are only referring the animals within this "healthy" category.  This is only a small percentage of the animals that arrive at our shelters.  The vast majority are treatable or unhealthy/untreatable. This statement gives the public a false sense of security, thinking that all or almost all of the animals coming in to a shelter are safe from being killed, and they certainly believe that their animal they're surrendering is healthy and adoptable.  They have no idea what this term of healthy really means.  It is but a very small victory and in no way should it create a sense of non-urgency. 

For dogs, thousands are killed each year due to having hip dysplasia or other orthopedic issues that may or may not require surgery at the time of intake but will either require medication to control pain and/or surgery at a later date.  Many hundreds are killed due to having symptoms of Kennel Cough. 

For cats, the vast majority are killed are because they are either under 8 weeks of age (and therefore not deemed "ready" for adoption and need foster care for a few weeks) or because they have a cold also known as an Upper Respiratory Infection (URI).  Many others are killed because they are fearful and therefore hiss and scratch when surrendered.

Many thousands of the animals that are taken in to the Open Admission shelters are also injured beyond repair, aggressive to the point of not being safe to put up for adoption, have a bite history, feral (wild), ill with contagious and lethal diseases such as Parvo, Distemper and Panleukopenia, or are at the end of their life with euthanasia as their best option to relieve suffering. This is the portion of the population that is labeled "Unhealthy and Untreatable".

Over the last several years, intakes at the shelters have been going slowly down, while the adoption rates, percentage wise, have gone slightly up.  This is due to the shelters working together to implement life saving strategies and share resources.  That's the good news.  The bad news is, the system is still not a well oiled machine.  Although it is a monumental task to have a system set up to handle and provide care for all the animals that are (by definition) healthy and treatable as well as many of the ones deemed unhealthy and untreatable that come in, I believe it can be done. I also believe it will be done, or I will live to my last day trying.    

Real and perceived obstacles to saving more lives

In my opinion, there are two obstacles that stand in the way of providing care for all of the healthy and treatable animals that come to Phoenix's shelters:

1. Sheer volume; especially when it comes to cats, Pit Bulls and Chihuahuas.  These three groups of animals are pouring in to Phoenix shelters at an alarming rate.  As you read above, cats are especially at risk for dying in a shelter.  Cats reproduce when it is warm outside, and in Phoenix, when isn't it warm? We get a "break" from the cat breeding cycle for about 2 months a year, and then it begins ramping up with the females getting pregnant as early as February with thousands of kittens, pregnant cats and nursing mothers with babies in tow flooding in to the shelter each week during the summer months.  Next are the Pit Bulls and the Chihuahuas.  Years ago when I began working in animal welfare small dogs weren't in too much danger of being euthanized as the volume was much lower.  Now the numbers of small dogs coming in to the shelters is staggering, with the majority of the small dog population consisting of Chihuahuas, or something that looks "Chihuahuaish".  One look at our website's list of available dogs will give you a good sense of the animals coming in to our community's open admission shelters.  As with many communities across the country, Pit Bulls and mixes of bully-type breeds makes up about 1/3 of the total shelter dog population in Maricopa County, and 75% of these dogs are killed.  Add to these three biggies the number of animals arriving that need medical care that their owners cannot afford, the animals who are discarded when families move, have a new baby etc and you've got 94,000 animals each year that are homeless.
2. Resources.  The resources available collectively to the animal welfare system are not being fully maximized.

Solutions

1. Aggressive spay and neuter programs to target cats, Pit Bulls, Chihuahuas and provide surgeries for residents that would otherwise could not afford the surgery for their pets.
2. Let the Community Cats live in the community.  Community Cats are cats that are either unowned, loosely owned and/or wild.  These cats don't belong in a shelter, especially in shelters that destroy up to 80% of them.  The wild cats die at a rate of 100% as they're not a cat that can be housed safely or adopted out in the traditional manner.  The best thing for a community cat is to spay/neuter it, feed it and let it be.  Yes, they run the risk of being killed by a predator, car or mean human and it's hot in the Phoenix summer but I'm pretty sure the cats would opt for running that risk rather than dying in a shelter.
3. I believe it is the responsibility of every shelter to look at their resources and ensure they're using them to their fullest capacity.  I believe the resources the animal welfare system has collectively available could be used in different ways to better maximize their efficiencies. For example, if a shelter routinely has empty kennels on the adoption floor, but is killing treatable animals because the isolation areas are full, reconfiguring current housing space to fit the needs of more treatable animals will create more space.  In order to save more lives everyone must remain flexible with protocols and housing arrangements.  I personally believe it is criminal to allow treatable, savable pets to die while kennels sit open somewhere in someone's shelter and there are medical teams that have the capacity to provide the care.  It really shouldn't matter who treated the pet or who housed the pet or who adopted the animal out, it should only matter that the animal left the shelter system alive in good medical and behavioral standing, spayed/neutered, vaccinated and hopefully microchipped. Killing savable animals where alternatives exist is not ethical or humane. It is not what donors are providing their hard earned money for and it is what haunts me every day.  An example of how this has been put in to action began in May of 2011 when HALO formed a partnership with MCACC to "rent" 40 dog kennels and 20 cat kennels (at the rental cost of $20/yr total) in order to increase the number of dogs and cats that would receive medical/behavioral treatment within the sheltering system, and thus, increase the Live Release Rate.  Although rent is virtually free, HALO has incurred significant cost to expand their treatment capabilities to two campuses and increase their animal "inventory" by over 120 in these additional 60 kennels. HALO has agreed to cover the cost of staffing, transportation and medical care for these additional animals, and MCACC has provided us the space in their own shelter and is spaying/neutering many of the animals to help offset HALO's cost of preparing the animals for adoption.  Not only does this save MCACC the cost of caring for the animals they'd normally house in these kennels, but it frees their staff up to focus on other lifesaving measures in the shelter that they couldn't do before because they were providing care to the animals that were previously owned by them occupying the kennels now leased to HALO.  And because HALO is able to provide staffing and medical care at a lower cost than MCACC, it is the best use of the community's collective resources to squeeze the most out of every dollar.  It is a win-win-win situation.  

I am not saying this will be easy, and I'm not saying these solutions are the answer to save every single animal that needs help, but I can say with full confidence and 17 years of Phoenix animal welfare experience that the ability to save more animals with the current collective resources is possible. This year HALO has increased adoptions by almost a full 1,000 over 2010 in part by sharing resources with MCACC.  2012 will bring more opportunities for HALO to find homes for at least another 500, with the goal to save another 1,000 over this year's 34% increase in adoptions. In order to succeed in continuing on the upward trend of more and more lives saved, we will need your help.  I encourage every donor to ask all the questions of any agency you give your money to learn about their policies.  Ensure that their protocols match your belief systems.  I can assure you that, at HALO,  we are not perfect but I can also assure you that we're always looking at ways to improve what we do to get more "bang for the donor buck" and reach our common goal of:

Helping Animals Live On

*definitions similar to the ones here can be found at http://www.asilomaraccords.org/definitions.html

To learn more about the partners of the Alliance for Companion Animals in Arizona, see their websites:

www.halorescue.org

www.aawl.org

www.maricopa.gov/pets

www.azhumane.org

www.alteredtails.org

www.pacc911.org

www.adlaz.org

www.healingheartsaz.org

HALO Animal Rescue begins a new collaboration with the help of PetSmart Charities®

Phoenix - In the world of animal shelters, no-kill rescues and large county shelters rarely get along, but Heather Allen, Executive Director of HALO Animal Rescue, sees no reason why it has to be that way.  "We're in the same boat.  No one wants these dogs and cats to be needlessly euthanized," she said.  "We've been working together with Maricopa County Animal Care and Control to find ways to eliminate this tragedy."

     In Maricopa County, nearly 50,000 shelter pets each year are euthanized.  The reason so many do not leave the shelters alive?  Many of the dogs and cats are simply sick, too young for adoption, or too timid and scared.  HALO, which stands for Helping Animals Live On, is devoted to saving these pets.  The non-profit organization rescues animals in danger of being euthanized and then finds them loving new homes.

It didn't take long for these rescued animals to fill HALO's shelter. Animals that were once days (or hours) from being euthanized filled kennels lining every available wall in every room of the small no-kill shelter.  Hearing of their plight, and recognizing the good work HALO was doing, Animal Care and Control stepped up to help.  Animal Control had extra room, and with the goal of reducing euthanasia they were willing to let HALO move into their west valley shelter.  HALO has now converted two underutilized parts of Animal Control's building into treatment spaces for dogs and cats.

"We figured, why build a whole new building when the shelter space is already there?" Allen pointed out.  HALO is now working to raise funds for animal care to keep the new space full and save as many animals as possible. 

     Much of the initial funding is being provided by a generous grant from PetSmart Charities®.  "By creating an innovative collaboration, HALO Animal Rescue is dedicating itself to solving the problem of homeless-pet overpopulation," said Susan Della Maddalena, vice president and executive director of PetSmart Charities, Inc.  "PetSmart Charities is proud to support partnerships like these that make such a difference to the local community."

  When the new space is in full use, HALO expects to be able to save up to 1,900 additional animals each year.  And with the collaboration underway, HALO has already begun to see an increase in adoptions.

 The public is encouraged to adopt a shelter pet; if you cannot adopt, consider supporting HALO and the work they are doing to help save homeless dogs, cats, puppies and kittens.

# # #

About HALO Animal Rescue: HALO Animal Rescue is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) no-kill animal rescue dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and finding new homes for homeless dogs and cats. HALO finds new homes for more than 2,500 animals each year, focusing on animals that are in danger of being euthanized.  For more information on adopting, donating, or volunteering, visit www.halorescue.org.

About PetSmart Charities®: Established in 1994, PetSmart Charities, Inc. is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that creates and supports programs that save the lives of homeless pets, raise awareness of companion animal-welfare issues, and promote healthy relationships between people and pets.  The largest funder of animal-welfare efforts in North America, PetSmart Charities has provided more than $134 million in grants and programs benefitting animal-welfare organizations and has helped save the lives of more than 4.5 million pets through its in-store adoption program.  To learn more about how PetSmart Charities is working towards its vision of a lifelong, loving home for every pet, visit petsmartcharities.org or call 1-800-423-PETS.

Details

For the last 15 years or so, HALO has partnered with Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (MCACC) and is part of MCACC's New Hope Program.  Being a New Hope Partner means we can take animals from their shelters that meet the criteria to be eligible for the New Hope program.  These items consist of the dog or cat that are not put up for adoption due to being too young, too sick, too scared, possibly having a bite history, being a nursing mom or being injured.  The other animals that are eligible are animals that they've put up for adoption but they have not been adopted for whatever reason. Generally these animals are available after being up for adoption for somewhere between an hour to a day.  While HALO does take animals that are considered "healthy" and are not at risk of euthanasia at that very moment from MCACC's shelter, the vast majority of the animals we take are those that are either on the euthanasia list, or that we feel have a good possibility of being put on the list within a day or two.  85% of our intakes consist of animals from MCACC's or the AZ Humane Society's shelter, 6% are animals being returned, and the remaining 9% are public intakes (which are owner surrenders and animals that are abandoned at our shelters or in one of the many PetSmart and Petco stores we feature our pets at). We strongly believe in focusing our attention on those animals "most" at risk; the ones already in shelters and who may be euthanized within hours or days. 

HALO has been MCACC's largest New Hope partner for many years, meaning, we take more animals out of their shelter than any other rescue in the area.  This does not discredit the work of the other rescues in any way, it just helps you understand one of the reasons MCACC chose HALO to partner with for their first-of-its-kind space sharing endeavor we embarked on in April 2011.  If you've ever visited our shelter, you know that we are packed in to a 3,000 sq foot building.  All 25 employees, 55 cats and 50 dogs.  There are 14,000 "treatable" (dogs and cats that are too shy, sick, or young to put up for adoption at the time they arrive at the shelter or they become ill during their stay) dogs and cats killed in Maricopa County every year in the open admission shelters, and HALO's goal is to grow to enable a strong animal welfare system for these animals.  We'd like to save all 50,000 from euthanasia some day, but it is one step at a time.  Taking charge of the treatables is the next step in the triage chain to make a big impact on the numbers of animals that are killed who are otherwise highly adoptable they just need a little medical care, foster care or extra TLC to attain adoptable status.  Don't get me wrong, we treat cases of Parvo and other medical conditions that are considered "unadoptable" in the list of behavioral and medical issues but by and large our focus is on the treatable population. 

HALO is part of the Alliance for Companion Animals, a group of animal welfare professionals in the Phoenix area that sit around the table to collaborate on ways to reduce euthanasia as well as increase adoptions, spay/neuter efforts and educate the public on just how big the problem is here and what we can all do to change the plight of homeless animals.  In creating a strategic plan with the Alliance in November 2010, HALO's portion of the plan was to increase our adoption outreach as we don't currently have a spay/neuter or a formal education program.  We keep our focus on what we do really well and that is care for the sick, injured and young, and adopt them out. HALO's goal was to increase adoptions in 2011 by 20%, and in order to do that we needed to increase our ability to house and care for more dogs and cats as well as find adoption avenues for them.  With that goal in mind, I negotiated with MCACC for HALO to use 20 of their cat kennels that were sitting empty due to their significant decrease of cat intakes following an implementation of a $96 stray cat surrender fee in 2010, as well as use one of their kennel buildings for dogs that has 40 indoor/outdoor runs in it.  This increase in capacity enabled us to double our dog capacity and gave us a good size increase in our cat capacity.  We are up and running with an additional 68 dogs and 36 cats at MCACC's facility as of this moment.  The number of animals will vary depending on how many are puppies/kittens and how many are housed together.  With this space increase we were able to add 3 more PetSmart/Petco stores that have adoptable cats up for adoption to give our newly added cats a place to go once they were ready for show time.  We've also added a few days to our dog adoption schedules on the weekends at a few PetSmart locations to showcase our additional dogs. 

We're just getting our feet wet in this new project and finding ways to balance the incoming population and finding adopters for the animals that are ready.  As soon as a kennel opens up we've got it filled with the next needy dog or cat. The volume of needy animals far outweigh our ability to get to them in time to save them from death, so we continue to work in full scale crisis mode every day with the hopes that someday the pressure may give just a bit and we can focus on that next tier of animals that are in need; those that are harder to place due to high medical needs or who have behavior issues that require rehabilitation. 

How You Can Help

There are so many ways you can help! Choices you make in your everyday life affect the animal population in a positive or negative way.  There's just no way around that fact.  There is no neutral.  I'll list a few ways that you can help HALO and ways you can help all the animals:

HELPING HALO

1. Adopt your next pet from us.
2. Volunteer to help at the shelter, help at offsite adoptions or foster animals in your home. For those of you with good office skills we can use help with some administration work.  Our thrift store also needs help! The more volunteers we have the more animals we can help. Contact Danielle Miranda at danielle@halorescue.org or 602-971-9222x108 for more information.
3. Donate dollars and/or supplies to the shelter.  Our annual expenses are likely to reach $1.5M this year due to the new partnership with MCACC. Nothing in life is free even for a non-profit! Becoming an Angel Club member is a great way to give a monthly donation we can rely on to help us further our mission.  We will use every dollar to its fullest extent! You can check out our Wish List too.
4. Tell your friends and family about us! www.halorescue.org
5. Become our friends on Facebook

HELPING THE CAUSE

1. Join www.peoplesavingpets.org It is a movement that is bringing awareness to just how large the pet homeless problem is in this world.  Most people know there is a problem, but most are stunned to learn just how big the problem is.  Most don't know that 4 million dogs and cats die in shelters every year.  Joining the movement and spreading the word will help others learn about it as well. 
2. Choose to adopt rather than buy your pets from a pet store, breeder, newspaper, Craig's List, the internet or any other source that sells animals for a profit.  A good adoption organization will only adopt out animals that are sterilized (unless there is a true medical condition that makes it unsafe that a vet has vouched for. Being too young doesn't count.). There are breed rescues groups for just about every breed of dog or cat you're looking for.
3. Ensure your pets are fixed and that you're not adding to the population. Remember, every choice you make does impact the animals that are currently homeless.  Even when you find homes for your pet's babies, others in the shelter won't get that home. Don't forget, this includes the cats outdoors you're feeding.  You can get free or low-cost help by calling the Spay Neuter Hotline which covers all of Arizona at 602-265-SPAY
4. Microchip your pets, even your indoor cats.  "Have legs, can travel" I always say! Microchipping your pets and ensuring the registration stays current is one of the best ways to help your pets return home safely if they become lost and are impounded in a shelter.  Cats have a less than 1% chance of being returned to their owner when they enter a shelter! WOW! Dogs don't do much better at 9%.  Microchipping your pets will significantly increase their odds of returning home.  We offer chipping at the shelter for $25 and that includes registration.  We even have specials at times for less than that.  The best money you'll spend for that extra peace of mind.
5. Spread the word!

Thank you all for taking part in Helping Animals Live On!

Sincerely,

Heather

Those of you who visit Maricopa County Animal Care and Control's (MCACC) west side shelter will notice some changes in the "I Building".  MCACC has a large shelter located at the intersection of 27^th avenue and Durango in Phoenix, AZ. The main building houses all their administrative offices, their clinic as well as many kennels for the dogs and cats in their care.  Outside of this building on their campus they have dog kennel buildings that have between 20 and 40 kennels in each of the nine buildings, labeled A thru I.  In a first-of-its kind collaboration, MCACC has partnered with us, HALO Animal Rescue, to help increase their live release rate of the 50,000+ animals arriving at their shelters each year.  The goal of this collaboration is to save the lives of an additional 1,300 dogs each year that arrive to the shelter needing a little extra medical care and/or time needed to become adoptable.  We are hopeful that through this collaboration we will be able to greatly increase the lifesaving efforts of both agencies while keeping costs down as much as possible; something HALO Animal Rescue specializes in!

We haven't forgotten about the cats! In March 2011, we began using 20 of MCACC's cat kennels to provide care to cats that arrive in need of a little extra medical attention and/or time needed to become adoptable; and so far, very good!  HALO Animal Rescue expects to save an additional 580 cats in these kennels each year. 

Next time you're at the shelter, stop by and say hello! We're honored to partner with MCACC.  Together we are stronger than the work we can do individually. 

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. 

info@halorescue.org 602-971-9222 www.halorescue.org

HALO Animal Rescue's 2010 Stats  

What do you think about this partnership?

For HALO Animal Rescue, our adoption fee income makes up about 37% of our total revenue for 2010 so far.  Ideally, animal shelters do not rely heavily on their adoption fees to subsidize the work they're doing, and we'd like to get to that point as well, but this year won't be that year for us.  At the end of 2009, the "funded" portion of the Maddie's Pet Rescue Project of Maricopa County (a project that HALO plays a significant role in) also came to an end.  While there is some residual monies left in the Project's account to be distributed over the next two years to its partners, it isn't nearly as significant to HALO's income as the Project's funds were for the last 7 years (33% of our income then versus the current 2% of our income).  In the midst of making up for this financial loss, we are seeing more and more that low-cost and free adoptions help drive adopters our way rather than the pet stores, the newspaper and the other places that unscrupulous individuals put cash generation above animal welfare.  Low-cost and free adoptions also help catch the attention of the media, which helps get the attention of adopters and literally means lives are saved.  Two weekends ago, we partnered up with AAWL & SPCA and our agencies placed over 200 animals in one day, but at a large "financial loss" for the agencies in terms of cost-per-animal vs. adoption fees paid.  Even our regular adoption fees don't cover the cost of the services we provide to the animals prior to adoption.  I say all of this to lead to the point that I'd love to get some feedback on: as the adopting public, do you feel any sort of more or less attachment to your animals depending on how much you paid for them?  Do you consider bringing in a new pet as less of a commitment if you pay a small fee or get the animal for free versus paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for the pet?  Do you feel that a lowered adoption fee sends a message that shelters animals have less value than animals not in a shelter?  What would you do to keep the adoptions going while keeping your doors open and keeping enough resources available to help the animals that need much more than a roof over their head and some food/water and medical basics? 

Thank you for all the support you've given HALO since 1994 to help us grow to where we're at.  We're part of Maricopa County, Arizona's life-saving network of rescue agencies here to help the homeless dogs and cats in this HUGE, 900 square mile community! Maricopa County is only second to Los Angeles County in terms of the number of animals that come in to our welfare system each year.  Close to 100,000 dogs and cats will call upon our community for help this year, and the next and the next.  It is up to all of us to decide how we want these animals cared for and to do our very best to provide them all a safe and loving place to call home.

Thank you for supporting us in our mission of Helping Animals Live On!

Sincerely,

Heather Allen