Mission: Orange

It's the one year anniversary of the Mission: Orange kickoff event here in Austin, called the Homeless Animals Summit. From the ASPCA's website:
"ASPCA Mission: Orange is a focused effort to create a country of humane communities, one community at a time, where animals receive the compassion and respect they deserve—a nation where there is no more unnecessary euthanasia of adoptable animals simply because of a lack of resources and awareness. "

I'm guessing that there were about 100 people at the event, including the leaders from TLAC, ATA, Emancipet, and the Humane Society, who are the partners with the ASPCA in Mission: Orange. A good number of the attendees were from other cities, though, so there were probably only about 50 Austinites. We spent the weekend brainstorming ideas for getting Austin to "no-kill". It was a great weekend that produced lots of ideas.

But just ideas. There was no one responsible for implementing any of these big ideas. After the summit, I received a few emails thanking everyone and one regarding a Mission: Orange contest (do something to promote the program, the winner gets a prize trip to NY), but nothing about the ideas that came of the weekend. There was no leadership set up to put these ideas into motion. As far as I know, not one idea from that summit weekend has been implemented.

So, around TLAC, what has changed? Nothing. There was some talk about training for staff, which may have happened, I don't know. There was talk about implementing a new program for better matching customers with pets, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm sure that something has happened, but I'll bet if you ask any volunteer at TLAC about Mission: Orange, they won't know what you're talking about.

So, not quite the impact I'd thought we see after the summit last year. The ASPCA did give a sizable donation to ATA, which is wonderful. But compare that $300,000 donation to the $6 million annual budget of TLAC and you won't be convinced that it's going to quickly solve our problems here in Austin.

The Mission: Orange website mentions 2 specific goals. The first is to increase the adoption rate by 10% in the first year. I haven't heard yet if they made this goal, but it's doubtful. I do believe that adoption numbers are up this year, but I'm not sure if we can discern the cause (not that it really matters, adoptions are up, so YAY!) Unfortunately, the adoption numbers at TLAC are paltry (rescue groups account for many more of the animals who leave alive). The number is around 3,500 per year, I need to look up the exact number, then I'll post it. So, if we can save another 350 a year, that is fabulous, but not exactly earth-shattering and it will certainly not get us to no-kill anytime soon (TLAC kills approximately 10,000 animals in a year).

The second goal is to get us to a 75% save rate by 2010. So in two years, they're going to get the rate from 50% to 75%. Hmm.

I suppose that I am a little frustrated with the ASPCA and the Mission: Orange program for more than just a lack of action here in Austin. Nathan Winograd, on his blog, claims that the ASPCA told Philadelphia that they'd be dropped as a Mission: Orange city (and lose the grant) if they didn't withdraw their support of his book tour. This is crazy! I don't understand why these groups have to be in war with each other. I don't care who does it, the animals certainly don't care who does it. If there are others out there who want to save the animals, too, shouldn't we all be supportive?

If the ASPCA came to TLAC today with a list of programs that they want to implement, I'll be the first one to sign up. Finally some leadership to get us out of this mess! After this year, I'm still waiting. Maybe we'll see something this year...we'll have to see something to get us to that 75% goal in 2010.