In 2001, the first shelter that saved healthy and treatable animals was created at Tompkins County SPCA in New York.
There are now over 300 successful shelters in the United States. These shelters are in urban and rural areas, operate under different political parties, are open and closed admissions, have divergent economies, climates and capacities.
They are successfully managing their organisations by decreasing and managing intake, removing barriers to adoption, expanding hours of operation, implementing playgroup for dogs, maintaining respectful and affordable reclaim process, utilising rescue groups, establishing progressive policies, encouraging interaction between animals and people, creating a solid foster care system, intensive and consistent marketing, utilise data collection, incorporating medical programs, incorporating infection control standards, implementing Barn Cat programs, improving adoption matches, embracing the community, creating a Helpdesk, working better with Councils, using transparency as a model for accountability, implementing proven programs and tapering them to optimise animal outcomes, and so much more.
Being a successful shelter is possible if it has been accomplished over and over again.
People that work in successful shelters are coming together on an annual basis and sharing their programs, outcomes, policies, animal flow, data, advocacy, legislation, fundraising and budgets.
There is no isolated reason why South Australian shelters cannot save healthy and treatable animals. It is clear that saving the lives of homeless pets is not a priority for South Australian animal shelters. This is why Lucy’s Law was created.