During a presentation at the PetSmart Charities Feline Forum in Chicago, a slide of a dog appeared. The dog was cute, of course, and everyone oohed and aahed. And then someone yelled out, “He’s a spy!”
And everyone laughed — and everyone agreed: No dogs allowed! Carol Moutlton, senior program manager, PetSmart Charities, Inc. noted during the introductory presentation, “I’ve been in the field for 30 years, and this is the first national conference I know of focused on just felines.”
Too narrow in scope for a conference? Hardly. Approximately 600 people from all over the country and Canada showed up to participate in the Feline Forum. They came to make new like-minded friends, network and share their success tales, war stories and Hallmark moments about working with the cat population. They came to learn how they might better serve their feline communities by attending lectures and workshops presented by doctors, lawyers, non-profit executives, advocates and researchers, all experts in their feline-related fields.
The conference offered attendees a choice of 36 different workshops focusing on issues such as free-roaming cats, shelter concerns, saving cats now and in the future, and adoptions. During breaks, people socialized, forged new relationships and contacts, and collected information from the exhibitors on site.
Included in the esteemed group of speakers were Best Friends’ own Liz Finch, the sanctuary’s No More Homeless Pets manager, and Ledy VanKavage, Best Friends’ senior legislative analyst.
Finch made a co-presentation with executive director of the Nevada Humane Society, Bonney Brown, on how to manage hoarding situations. Finch has worked at Best Friends through some of the most dire hoarding situations including the Great Bunny Rescue in 2006 where more than 800 still-breeding rabbits were rescued from the back yard of a Nevada woman and more recently, the rescue of more than 800 cats from a horrible hoarding situation in Pahrump, Nevada.
“We need to encourage dealing with hoarders as a community — one animal organization shouldn’t have to shoulder the entire rescue effort,” says Finch. “We know this from experience. We’re still paying for the Pahrump cat rescue — so far, we’ve shelled out $1.3 million dollars to care for the cats.”
VanKavage’s presentation included an overview of Best Friends’ Focus on Felines program, a look at legal issues as they apply to feral cats, and examples of successful programs dedicated to positively impacting shelters, by lowering intake rates and raising adoption rates.
“No single solution is likely to suffice for all situations,” notes VanKavage. “Creative, integrated programming of adoption, relocation and TNR should be applied for maximum effect.”
One of the Feline Forum workshops, “Rebranding Felix,” explored the power of language as a means to encourage the adoption of shelter cats. Led by Emily Stone and Donna Mlinek of the Dumb Friends League in Colorado, the session covered promotional and advertising ideas that worked well, very well — and not so well.
For example, “We hosted a promotion where people could adopt a kitten for the regular adoption fee and take home an older cat for free,” says Mlinek. “One of the ideas we came up with to brand the campaign was ‘Supersize me.’ In the end, it didn’t seem to work — it just made me think of French fries. …”
At one point, the attendees broke into smaller groups to brainstorm some of the more common dilemmas that come up when having to describe the less-than-perfect shelter cat. For instance, how does one convey that a cat needs to be the only cat in a home as a selling point vs. an obstacle? A couple of good ideas came out of the break-out sessions, including the slogans, “I’m all the cat you’ll ever need,” and “You’ve only got one lap. …”
PetSmart Charities aims to host national conventions every other year. Communication manager for PetSmart Charities Kim Noetzel says that the organization is already thinking about the 2011conference, but it’s still in the very early planning stages.
“We do know we’ll be looking to choose a topic that addresses important and emerging issues in animal welfare,” says Noetzel.
For More Information
The mission of the Focus on Felines campaign is to keep cats safe and out of shelters across the country. We partner with non-profits and local governments to help achieve a day when there are No More Homeless Pets. We implement innovative trap/neuter/return (TNR) and education programs to prevent ferals and strays — community cats — from entering shelters. The Focus on Felines web community is a place for cat lovers to meet, share information, and provide support and advice for TNR and community cat topics.
Photos by Amy Abern