MAS News | May 2017
 Supporters and Friends,
I'm very excited today to tell you about the MAS Safety Net Program, a set of initiatives we've just launched. Its goal is to keep pets in their homes, both by preventing loving pet owners from surrendering their pets and helping lost pets find their way home.
One part of that is changing the way we handle intake, including family pets being given up by their owners and found pets being dropped off by citizens. We've changed our intake hours (click here for detailed hours), and changed owner surrenders to by-appointment-only.
Before someone is able to surrender their personal pet, they will first be counseled via phone to educate them about potential alternatives to giving up their pets. (These alternatives are also available on our website.) The counseling will help make people aware of all the resources that are available to them, such as assistance with pet food, spay/neuter, etc. We see so often people who love their pets and want to be able to keep them, but they lack access to some resource allowing that to be possible. We hope to firstly, keep pets in those kinds of loving homes, and secondly, reduce intake and leave more room for pets coming from homes where they truly aren’t cared for. This “managed intake” approach was recommended by Target Zero, the nonprofit for which Memphis is a fellow city in its mentorship aimed at eliminating time/space euthanasia in three years.
Another new initiative is our volunteer-run NextDoor Proactive Reclaim program. A team of volunteers, five to seven days a week, posts the previous day’s list of pets who were found stray in the NextDoor neighborhoods in which they were found, along with instructions for potential owners on how to reclaim that pet from MAS. Our hope for this program is to help lost pets make it home more quickly, make more room in the shelter, and ultimately help us continue to save more lives.
We’re also excited to be launching electronic tablets in our animal control vehicles. Officers with tablets are able to enter pets’ photos and information into the shelter database from the field, getting them on our website for potential owners to see more quickly than before when they had to wait until the end of their shift to enter them once back at the shelter. We hope this technology will help us provide better customer service to citizens who lose their pets.
We've consistently improved our save rate (percentage of animals with positive outcomes) over the last few years, jumping from 65 percent in 2015 to 74 percent in 2016, and up to 83 percent year-to-date in 2017. Our goal with these MAS Safety Net initiatives is to continue that upward trend to save as many lives as possible.
Many thanks,
Alexis Pugh, Administrator
Memphis Animal Services
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National Dog Bite Prevention Week, sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association, was in April. The AVMA says that kids are the most likely to be bitten, so MAS took the opportunity to educate school children about safely interacting with dogs, what to do to avoid getting bitten, and what to do if you are bitten.
Pictured at left is an Aspire Coleman student greeting former MAS resident Sue (who is now with a rescue group). The students were taught how to approach a dog, and several lucky students had the chance to put what they learned into practice with Sue.
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Find Us Around Town
Dogaroo | Saturday, May 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Shelby Farms (at the Outback Off-Leash Dog Park)
Come see us with some adoptable dogs at this dog-friendly outdoor event!
Dog Day at the Garden | Sunday, May 21 from 2 to 5 p.m.
Memphis Botanic Garden
MAS will attend this annual dog-friendly event with two adoptable dogs!
Events at MAS
Volunteer & Photography Orientation | Saturday, May 20 at 10 a.m.
Conference Room at MAS
Join us at Memphis Animal Services for our monthly volunteer orientation to learn about all the different ways you can get involved and be a part of saving lives at MAS!
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Staff Spotlight: Tracy Taylor
For our first spotlight, we want to introduce you to someone who, if you've ever been to MAS, you've probably had the great pleasure of meeting: Tracy Taylor. As one of our administrative clerks, Tracy divides her time between greeting customers at the front desk, processing adoptions, researching microchips, answering phones, and performing overall customer service. Tracy is a joy to be around, she loves animals, and she genuinely just loves to help people. In fact, that's why she works at MAS and why she loves her job!
Tracy has been at MAS since 2010. She has a 12-year-old miniature schnauzer named Snoopy, and she is known for bedazzling work shirts and lanyards for herself and her co-workers! She spreads happiness and positivity wherever she goes. We are so thankful to have Tracy Taylor on our team!
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How Can You Help? Donate Items from Our Amazon Wish List
There are a number of items on our general and foster Amazon wish lists that help us save lives. If you're interested in helping us save more lives but can't adopt, volunteer, or foster, you can be a HUGE help by donating needed items from our Amazon Wish List. Click here to see our General Wish List, and click here to see our Foster Wish List. Both are very important; they just serve different purposes (General Wish List items are for use in the shelter; Foster Wish List items are for use by foster parents in foster homes).
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MAS Dogs Enjoy Community Events
Now that spring has sprung, Memphis Animal Services is out and about around town at community events. Recently, we've taken adoptable dogs to the Broad Avenue Spring Art Walk, Pet Adoption at Sutton Place Apartments (with zero breed or weight restrictions!), Tour for Life at Overton Park, and Bark in the Park in Millington. Dice (#A295131) is one of the lucky guys who found his forever home thanks to these adoption events! He is pictured at left with his new mom Sarah and MAS Senior Animal Services Officer Matt Belue.
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 You can see from the April shelter statistics that our overall save rate (or percentage of animals who left the building with a positive outcome) was 82.03%! We want to keep maintaining our 80%+ save rate and, of course, continue to strive toward 90%.
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