An Up Hill Climb

The more I attend the monthly MADACC operations committee meetings the more I realize we are really starting this effort from rock bottom. I continue to commend the efforts of the new executive director who gets asked questions from the board like “is there more than one Petco in the metro area?” Is there more than one Petco?!?! Anyone, I mean anyone off the streets who owns an animal can name the closest Petco whether you shop there or not. I mean think about it right now. Where is your nearest Petco? You can picture it right? We are clearly not dealing with pet owners. We are clearly dealing with administrators. These constant conversations about statistics, not animals, about where are the pet stores in the area, about how the staff is doing, is just mind boggling; mostly because while they are chitchatting animals are being murdered behind closed doors. Let’s chitchat about that shall we? Well at least the executive director seems willing to talk about it. I’m beginning to see why sees afraid to just walk in slam the door and say we are going No Kill. She is starting from rock bottom.

Now that my rant about the lack of animal talk at Tuesday’s meeting is over, let’s talk about some of the lifesaving initiatives that are just beginning. First, they are working to get a grant to help pay for spay/neuter of their cats. Already spayed and neutered cats are more desirable for adopters and rescues. Again, the more we can move out the more we can save. Also, volunteers are running an off-site adoption at the Petco in Oak Creek. This is GREAT. One, it saves lives and two it proves the worth of volunteers.  And coming in September, MADACC will be opening its doors to the public for a weekend. It is part of a special weekend in Milwaukee where other businesses and agencies also open up their doors for tours. What’s great about this is two-fold as well. First, exposure. People need to know where MADACC is and that MADACC is accessible. Second, transparency. People need to know what is going on behind MADACC’s doors. We are paying for it after all.

We really are starting at rock bottom when it comes to life saving initiatives. All of these things are amazing for MADACC but these ideas just begin to skim the surfaces. Most of these ideas I’ve already seen done, succeed, and completed on a much larger scale. Again, small steps for MADACC, HUGE steps for the one or two more animals it saves. We must continue to fight. We must continue to tell them this is a step in the right direction but we need much more than this. We support you so far but we need to save thousands of more animals saved a year. The best part about starting at rock bottom is there is no place to go but up. Push.