Best Friends Town Hall: Neighbor-to-Neighbor
This COVID-19 Shelter Town Hall focused on these topics:
- Latest COVID veterinary guidelines from the CDC
- Preparing on your community
- Best Friends on the ground
- Breaking through digital barriers
- Updates from the field: Pima Animal Care
- Activating your community
- Preparing for the future
The following panelists joined us to lend insight and expertise:
- Dr. Erin Katribe, medical director at Best Friends Animal Society
- Stacy Rogers, director, Midwest region at Best Friends Animal Society
- Kenny Lamberti, director of grassroots advocacy at Best Friends Animal Society
- April Muller, digital advocacy lead at Best Friends Animal Society
- Sarah Aguilar, deputy director of Pima Animal Care
Click the timestamps below to skip to that portion of the town hall:
- Introduction to the panel 1:28
- Veterinary Updates from the CDC 2:36
- Relying on your community 6:28
- 2025 Action Team Grassroots Advocacy 9:03
- Breaking through digital barriers 13:56
- Pima Animal Care field update 19:21
- Emergency Preparation 22:51
- Engagement solutions using digital tools 25:19
- Get your community involved and how our current situation changes that 29:15
- Leveraging your community long term and what's next 33:54
- How can we thing about engaging the community if we are in an area without a brick and mortar shelter? 37:06
- If someone who finds an animal agrees to foster, can/should you have them sign an agreement? What sort of liability issues might arise? 41:45
VIDEOS, WEBINARS, & PODCAST
- Best Friends Animal Society Grassroots Advocacy- Kenny Lamberti Facebook Live
- Kitten Minute: neonatal care video series
- Managing Intake 101 webinar
- Profiles in Leadership Podcast Episode 11 - Dr. Erin Katribe on COVID-19 and the future
- Radical RTO: A Conversation between Gina Knepp, National Shelter Engagement Director, Michelson Found Animals Foundation, and Tawny Hammond, National Director of Leadership Advancement, Best Friends Animal Society webinar
DOWNLOADABLE PDFs, PLAYBOOKS, & SOPs
- American Pets Alive! - Intake Diversion Protocol
- Best Friends Shelter in Place Shelter Guidance
- Caring for Abandoned Kittens: Handout explaining what to do if an individual finds kittens (English version, Spanish version)
- Community Cat Programs Handbook: Strays and Ferals
- Field Return-to-Owner Training Playbook
- Foster Programs Training Playbook: contains sample procedure and program information documents
- Kitten Foster Manual
- Managed Intake or Admissions Training Playbook
PARTNER EXAMPLES
- Best Friends - Coalition press release from Houston area
- Gateway Pet Guardians: sample press release to recruit temporary fosters
- Jacksonville Humane Society: Don't Kit-Nap Kittens
- Kitten Lady: How to Age Kittens
- Kitten Lady: Kitten Care Booklet (English & Spanish downloads available)
- Lawrence Humane Society (Shannon Wells) - COVID-19 Coronavirus Preparedness Plans
READY TO GO TEMPLATES
- Employment Status Letter Template: For use in areas under a shelter in place order for proof of employment/volunteer status at an essential business.
- Community Kindness Cards: Help keep pets at home and safe. Use these cards to ask your community to be part of solution. This template allows you to add your own logo and contact information as well. We recommend saving as a PDF before distributing.
- Press release template on communicating about COVID-19 and pets
- What to do if you find kittens: Handout with questions, kitten age chart and next steps when an individual finds kittens
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & INFORMATION
- American Pets Alive! - COVID-19 Animal Shelter Preparedness Guide
- AVMA - SARS-CoV-2 in animals, including pets
- Best Friends Action Team
- CDC - COVID-19- If you have animals
- Create a Facebook Group
- Guide to starting an Amazon Wishlist
- HelpingLostPets.com - Helping Lost Pets is FREE to use and when you list a pet as Lost or Found, our members in your area are alerted. We also partner with many amazing volunteer groups across the country that will share your listing on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
- Home to Home - Keeping animals out of shelters through direct home placement.
- HSUS - Coronavirus (COVID-19) shelter kit
- Onset of Kitten Season Combined with Shelter Limitations Leads to Creative Solutions
- Pet FBI - The Free Information Center For Lost and Found Dogs, Cats and All Other Pets Search Pet FBI’s big, user-friendly database!
- RedRover - COVID-19 Emergency Resources for People and Pets
- Rehome - Rehoming your pet should be easy and stress free both for you and your pet. Our experts at Adopt-a-Pet.com, the largest non-profit pet adoption website, with support from The Petco Foundation, have created a simple, reliable, free program to help you place your pet from your loving home directly to another.
If you enjoyed this town hall, you can find our complete catalog of town halls here.