On March 22, 2010 — just under a year ago — Kay Speerstra resigned as AWLA’s Executive Director. As the animal-outcomes data attest (see ShelterWatch.org), she left behind an organization that dramatically underperformed leading national open-admission shelters when it came to saving homeless cats and dogs. This was in spite of the fact that AWLA [...]
Archive for the ‘AWLA Stories’ Category
Progress Confirmed
Posted in AWLA Stories, DC Area Rescue Orgs, Principles on March 9, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Arlington’s Homeless Dogs
Posted in AWLA Policies, AWLA Stories, Principles on August 6, 2010 | 15 Comments »
In the first six months of this year, AWLA took in 210 homeless dogs. Here’s what happened to them, juxtaposed against how AWLA’s homeless dogs fared in 2009: % of homeless dogsJan-June 2010Jan-Dec 2009Adopted59.0%66.7%Transferred7.1%2.2%Killed33.8%30.0% The jump in the transfer rate is good news, but the other changes are in the wrong direction. The 71 homeless [...]
Where Have All the Kittens Gone?
Posted in AWLA Policies, AWLA Stories, Principles on July 23, 2010 | 4 Comments »
One of AWLA’s kitten fosterers recently mentioned to us that the shelter didn’t seem to be receiving the steady stream of abandoned kittens that usually begins in April and continues into the fall. We speculated that maybe the winter blizzards had taken a toll on the feral cat population, or that maybe years of spay/neuter [...]
Out of the Frying Pan…
Posted in AWLA Stories, DC Area Rescue Orgs, Yardsticks on June 19, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Last weekend AWLA transferred five of its dogs to Loudoun County Animal Control. Four of them — Buddy, Buttercup, Hannah, and Sophera — are currently listed as adoptable on the LCAC website. All four had been “on view” at AWLA for about six weeks without attracting adopters. To its credit, AWLA first offered these dogs [...]
Glimmers of Hope
Posted in AWLA Policies, AWLA Stories, DC Area Rescue Orgs on May 25, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Earlier this week, AWLA invited its volunteers to offer feedback and suggestions at an evening meeting hosted by the President of its Board of Directors. To anyone but an experienced AWLA volunteer, this gesture might sound unremarkable, but it actually represents a profound break with AWLA’s culture of the past several years. As recently as [...]
Where’s the Effort?
Posted in AWLA Policies, AWLA Stories, DC Area Rescue Orgs on May 19, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Here’s an excerpt from the most recent posting on AWLA’s blog, which is dated April 27, 2010: Shadow came to the League in March 2009 because his owner could no longer care for him. He was five years old, thin, and had a chronic skin condition that caused patches of fur to fall out. After [...]
Scofflaw Management
Posted in AWLA Policies, AWLA Stories, County Contract, Principles on March 10, 2010 | 4 Comments »
The paragraphs in italics below are excerpted from a letter that an AWLA employee recently sent to the Office of the State Veterinarian at the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. This employee was concerned and alarmed by the events and practices she witnessed at AWLA. The first event, which occurred about a year [...]
AWLA Lists Frenchie, Kills Rome
Posted in AWLA Stories, DC Area Rescue Orgs, Principles on January 12, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Frenchie, the cute 3-month-old Rottweiler mix that we cited in a post last weekend, was put on view for adoption yesterday. AWLA did the right thing for her, and we hope she finds a home soon. AWLA did not do the right thing for Rome, a one-year-old male pitbull and the other dog cited in [...]
Frenchie and Rome
Posted in AWLA Stories, DC Area Rescue Orgs, Principles on January 9, 2010 | 1 Comment »
AWLA’s “Lost and Found” dogs page currently lists three dogs, one of which (Blanche) is also listed for adoption. The other two are Frenchie, a cute 3-month-old Rottweiler mix, and Rome, a one-year-old male pitbull who for some reason does not have a picture. Presumably this would make it hard for his owner to find [...]
In Unsafe Hands
Posted in AWLA Policies, AWLA Stories, Principles on January 7, 2010 | 2 Comments »
In 2007, experts from rescue organizations were sent to evaluate the pitbulls rescued from Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels. Only one of the 53 dogs was judged to be too aggressive to be rehabilitated, despite the fact that these dogs had been subjected to enormous stress and rewarded for aggressive behavior. The 48 surviving Vick [...]
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