Top five program spotlights of 2022

December 27th, 2022

The end of December spurs all of us to look back at the year, to sum up the good and the bad, to think about what we’ve learned. As we looked back on our year of supporting network partners through the content on the Best Friends Network Partner website, we reviewed which program spotlights got the most attention. After all, it’s important to us to know what topics really resonate with shelters, rescues, and other animal welfare organizations.

Below are our top five most-viewed program spotlights. We hope you’ll be inclined to give them another read (or a first one) and see if your organization can apply some of the advice shared by professionals in the field:

1. Making more vets
Best Friends, Network partners take steps to increase the number of HQHVSN professionals

“As a profession, we have a moral imperative to invest time and resources into long-term solutions to the vet shortage, solutions that are sustainable both for the individuals in the profession and for the entire profession, as this problem isn’t going away,” says medical director Erin Katribe, DVM. “The lives and health of hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats who may not have adequate access to veterinary care in the coming years depend on it.”

brown dog on a leash looking into the camera

2. When rescuers need rescuing: managing our mental health
"we need our pain to show us where we need help so that we can cope with the suffering and the frustration"

While many have healthy coping skills to buoy them through their most challenging days, even the most upbeat individuals can find themselves in a dark valley, emotionally speaking. There’s no replacement for access to professional therapeutic resources, but there are also ways we can build resiliency in the workplace – both for ourselves and others.

3. Volunteers prove they can do more than just walk dogs or play with cats
“Volunteers are a workforce, not a workload.”

The shelter also needs to bear in mind that people volunteer for personal fulfillment reasons, but those reasons are varied. In some cases, volunteers are just as interested in getting exercise as they are in the animals – sometimes even more so. Others are there to help achieve the shelter’s lifesaving mission. Having a variety of ways volunteers can help out means that more of them will feel fulfilled, and hopefully, they’ll stick around to help the shelter for the long haul.

4. Kitten programs 2.0 part 1: Re-examining medical protocols for neonates
From tube-feeding to testing, to what supplies are essential this kitten season

Kitten season is almost here, and since we know that neonates have the highest mortality rate of any shelter or rescue population, we reached out to a few experts to see what’s new in terms of providing medical care for them. Whether you already have a kitten program in place or are thinking about adding one, here are some suggestions for rethinking medical protocols.

5. Best Friends National Adoption Weekend - Take Two!
Adoption results from May event inspire second event for network partners

Although waiving or reducing adoption fees was not a criterion for participating in the event, 74% of participants did so and saw adoption increases of 73% for their cats and a whopping 137% for their dogs! In fact, many groups felt that changing their adoption fees directly contributed to their success.