Mass. Animal Coalition & Alley Cat Allies Present the 2016 Whole Cat Workshop

“Busting Myths, Building Bridges, Saving Lives”

Sunday March 20, 2016 8:00am-4:30pmshutterstock_131953865
Agnes Varis Campus Center & Elmes Café, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton. Building “16” on Campus Map

Registration Now Open to All

Not a MAC member? Our new system will allow you to join MAC and register for WCW at the same time!

Click here to register

If the system does not recognize your email address, your membership may have expired or you may be using a different email address than the one we have on file for you. If you have problems or questions please email us at [email protected] 

NOTE: to register through an active MAC member organization using one of their free passes or through them at their member rate, you must contact the member org.

 

AGENDA:

Registration & continental breakfast begins at 8:00 am

Session starts promptly at 9:00 am

The Ins and Outs of Shelter Admission The term “limited admission” has been linked to “no kill”, but how does intake practices affect other shelters and our community’s ability to save the most lives possible? In this session Stacey Price will discuss what it means to be “limited admission” vs. “open admission” and the variety of internal and external reasons that go into making a decision to admit or deny cats into a shelter.

Speaker: Stacey Price, Animal Welfare Director at Kitsap Humane Society; Executive Director Ulster County SPCA; Executive Director and Development at Gifford Cat Shelter; Animal Advocate; Development Professional at Ecotarium

What You Don’t Know Could Kill Cats    In 25 years, the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) movement has grown exponentially as more individuals, groups, and local governments discover its effectiveness in meeting the needs of cats and people. Despite decades of evidence supporting TNR as the most effective approach to cat populations, life-threatening myths and outdated policies that threaten cats and kittens persist in many parts of the country. Becky Robinson will explain how you can dispel these myths and implement policies and programs that protect cats, people, wildlife and our environment.

Speaker: Becky Robinson, President and Founder, Alley Cat Allies

What’s In a Name? The Language of Animal Sheltering and Looking Towards Saving More Lives Our daily work is challenging and emotionally charged; after all, it’s about saving lives. So it’s little wonder that our communication can sometimes be loaded and even create undesired results. Bonney Brown will talk about the power of the language and terminology to improve our effectiveness in our communities and with other organizations, as well as increase the success of our lifesaving work. Bonney will draw on her experiences working with shelters across the county and as director of Nevada Humane Society with a sustained community wide save-rate of 94%.

Speaker: Bonney Brown- President and Principal Consultant, Humane Network; Executive Director, Nevada Humane Society; Chief Operating Officer, Best Friends Animal Society; Outreach Director, Alley Cat Allies; Founder and Executive Director, Neponset Valley Humane Society.

Panel Discussion: Increasing Opportunities for Cats   After talking about shelter admissions,  TNR and the language that we use, we will take time to reflect upon the impact it all has on the work that we do for cats across the state. Some rescuers may be reluctant to bring cats to open admission shelters, but are having difficulty finding placements at limited admission shelters. We will conduct a panel discussion with some of our larger, higher capacity shelters across the state to share information, dispel myths, develop relationships and break down barriers among us with the goal of  increasing resources for cats.

Thank you to our sponsors:

Alley Cat Allies

Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Embrace Pet Insurance

Ogena Solutions

PetLink.net

Animal Legal Defense Fund

The Cat Doctor of Bedford and Nashua 

Especially for Pets

The New England Federation of Humane Societies