Animal care and control agencies across the US experience similar issues in terms of shortage of resources – be it manpower or finances. But as with any government agency, they are expected to still deliver the same level of public service regardless of the availability of resources. In such settings, these agencies are forced to come up with creative ways to provide for the needs of the communities they serve.

This session’s speakers are Adam Leath and Dr. Mark Flowers. Adam Leath is the Director of Volusia County Animal Services and the former Regional Director of the Field Investigations and Response Team at the ASPCA. Meanwhile, Dr. Mark Flowers is the Division Director of Corrections in Volusia County.

Specifics of this webinar looked into:

• An overview of Volusia County and its Animal Services.
  • The geographic characteristics of the county and its population of humans and pets.
  • The structure of the Volusia County Animal Services and its core mission.
  • A rundown of the agency’s responsibility and the work and services it provides to its community.
  • Facts and figures that illustrate the agency’s productivity and performance compared to the previous year.
• Understanding the primary problems that the Volusia County Animal Services and other animal welfare agencies tend to face as a profession.
• The value of proactiveness in the animal service profession to interrupt the vicious cycle brought about by a reactive waiting for calls for service approach.
• The conflicting concepts in what animal care and control entities tend to aim for versus what they teach or communicate to the community.
• The critical shift from punishment to support where animal services agencies proactively identify the community’s needs and who are most in need of it and provide these to the community accordingly.
• Data-driven efforts undertaken by the Volusia County Animal Services to identify the areas where resources are most needed and other areas of opportunity where the agency can intervene, prevent health risks for the community animals, and keep people and pets together.
• The partnership between Volusia County Animal Services and the Corrections Division that leveraged inmates’ manpower to build doghouses without creating additional strain on taxpayers.
• The Operation Fire Scan and Rescue program that provided the fire stations with microchip scanners to make scanning lost and found pets more accessible across the county.
• The common financial constraints that hinder animal welfare agencies from truly making a difference and recommendations to circumvent and overcome these.
• Leveraging Mutual Aid Agreements as a force multiplier to maximize the benefits of innovative programs, especially in critical events.

Questions from the webinar audience are about:

• How the pandemic and easing out of it may have impacted the data gathered.
• Organizations within the community to collaborate with for similar partnership-driven initiatives.
• The low-income and elder population of Volusia County that benefited from the programs.
• Accessing the GIS resources that helped with crunching data to identify the community’s needs.
• Overcoming pushback across the different community stakeholders in terms of working with inmates for these projects and the pet-owners’ responsibilities.
• Grants and other financial resources for microchipping programs.

Other Webinars with This Speaker

• Nov 9: Critical Incident Stress Management for the ACO
• May 10: Proactive Responses to the Community’s Concerns (this webinar)
• June 28: Rescuing the “Rescuer:” The Challenging World of Hoarders

Or, click here to register and view other Animal Welfare webinars and recordings on the JCH website. 

Resources and Handouts

• Handout: Punishment to Support – the Need to Align Animal Control Enforcement with the Human Social Justice Movement 
• Organization Mentioned: Human-Animal Support Services

Audience Comments

• “Excellent, program.” — Robert
• “I appreciated the insight on the community outreach and how to use other resources to benefit the community.” — Stephanie
• “Adam is always great and I like the addition of the perspective his co-presenter brought. This is such an important topic to share information and strategies about. I appreciated that he distinguished the egregious cases of abuse/neglect. The stats were very motivating/encouraging!” — Emily
• “Excellent speaker! Lots of great ideas, yes more on this subject would be appreciated.” — Kimberly
• “The out-of-the-box thinking for solutions. Great webinar!” — Cindi
• “Loved the creative ideas and approaches and information on collaboration with other departments. Also – I’m stealing their disaster kit bucket idea. We have been looking at expensive bags for our disaster kits and hadn’t thought about just purchasing 5-gallon buckets and labeling them. It was a quick part of the presentation but will save us a bunch of money. 🙂 “– Katie

This webinar has been certified by the National Animal Care & Control Association and is approved for 1 Continuing Education Unit. Please refer to your NACA membership portal for current CEU submission process. Current NACA Members who attend the live presentation or watch the recording will be able to download a jointly issued attendance certificate that includes the National Animal Care & Control Association logo. Visit the NACA training page for a complete list of future trainings.