Susan Houser
The BCG Report on Dallas Animal Services – A Watershed Moment for No Kill?
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a prestigious, full-service consulting firm with international reach. The city of Dallas, TX, hired...
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Susan Houser
Aug 12, 20163 min read
No Kill Mentoring
Have you noticed that No Kill communities tend to occur in clusters? Take Austin, which achieved a 90%+ live release rate in 2011....
Susan Houser
Jul 26, 20165 min read
Purist or Pragmatist?
There are two types of No Kill activists. Those of you who have been around for a while know exactly what I mean. For people who don’t,...
Susan Houser
Jul 13, 20167 min read
No Kill: Programs and Models
We hear a lot about No Kill programs, and very little about No Kill models. That’s too bad, because the programs are only one aspect of...
Susan Houser
Jul 5, 20162 min read
Clear The Shelters
The Clear the Shelters adoption event is coming up on July 23, 2016. Last year, in its first year as a nationwide event, almost 20,000...
Susan Houser
Jun 28, 20168 min read
What Happened in Moore County
Moore County, North Carolina, is located about an hour southwest of Raleigh and is known for its golf courses. Two years ago Moore County...
Susan Houser
Jun 24, 20163 min read
No Kill: Are We Running As Fast As We Can?
We all want the United States to get to No Kill as fast as possible, but institutions take time to change. Given the inherent lag time...
Susan Houser
Jun 18, 20165 min read
Open Adoption
Open Adoption – it’s a topic that’s sure to start a lively discussion among shelter people. But what, exactly, is it? One misconception...
Susan Houser
Jun 2, 20165 min read
Meet the Directors: Bonney Brown and Diane Blankenburg of Humane Network
Today I have a guest post written in conjunction with Bonney Brown and Diane Blankenburg about their consulting organization, Humane...
Susan Houser
May 22, 20166 min read
Criticism: Constructive and Otherwise
There has been a lot of discussion on this blog’s Facebook page over the last month or two about the role of public criticism of local...
Susan Houser
Apr 30, 20164 min read
Tazewell County Hits 90%
Tazewell County, Virginia, is in the Appalachian mountains in the far southwestern part of the state. Its median household income is very...
Susan Houser
Apr 21, 20164 min read
Getting to Know Target Zero
Several organizations have started doing No Kill counseling and shelter assessments in the last few years. One such group is Target Zero,...
Susan Houser
Apr 3, 20165 min read
Can We Go Too Far With Spaying And Neutering?
We have achieved very high spay-neuter rates for owned cats and dogs (83% for owned dogs and 91% for owned cats*). If people are to have...
Susan Houser
Mar 20, 20167 min read
No Kill: Getting Started
I usually report about No Kill efforts that already have a track record of success. But not infrequently I get questions or comments from...
Susan Houser
Mar 11, 20163 min read
Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Movement
From the Out the Front Door HuffPo Blog: We used to have a terrible pet overpopulation problem in the United States. Intake at the Los...
Susan Houser
Feb 28, 20164 min read
Counting Feral Cats
Now that feral dogs have virtually disappeared in the United States and the supply of homeless dogs is approaching balance with demand,...
Susan Houser
Feb 23, 20165 min read
Building the Infrastructure for No Kill
We sometimes hear that No Kill can happen overnight. That has been true in a handful of communities where shelter intake is small. In...
Susan Houser
Feb 14, 20164 min read
Words of Wisdom
I’ve interviewed lots of No Kill shelter directors over the last few years, and many of them have told me about the mottoes they use to...
Susan Houser
Feb 7, 20166 min read
Dealing with Bird Conservationists
The last few years have been a very exciting time for cat advocates because the new community cat paradigms are revolutionizing how...
Susan Houser
Feb 1, 20164 min read
No Kill in the City
Here is my latest article for the Huffington Post blog. I’ve included all the big cities that have made it to No Kill or are almost...
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