The Florida Animal Control Association, which consists of 52 county shelters spanning from Key West to Florida panhandle, recently named Orange County Animal Services as \u201cOutstanding Agency of the Year.\u201d The award was presented at the association\u2019s annual conference held at Kissimmee\u2019s Park Inn by Radisson Resort on Saturday, March 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel so honored to be recognized for our hard work and are thankful to those in the community who played a role in this achievement,\u201d said Dil Luther, division manager of Orange County Animal Services. \u201cWe will continue to strive for success and take this as a challenge to further better ourselves for the benefit or Orange County\u2019s pets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orange County Animal Services composed a nine-page nomination which attributed the shelter\u2019s recent success to a three-point strategy to improve the community for pets. The tactics consisted of boosting the live release rate, improving the shelter image and developing programs to help manage the pet population in the community.<\/p>\n
The shelter\u2019s live release rate is composed of positive outcomes for pets including adoption, reclaimed by family, transferred to rescue partner and foster care and has improved drastically over recent years. The shelter attributes this to expanded operational hours, social media efforts, additional staff in key roles and the removal of breed designations. In recent months, the shelter was able to achieve a 90 percent live release rate for dogs and 52 percent for cats, the highest in the shelter\u2019s 47 year history.<\/p>\n
Strides to improve the shelter\u2019s image were propelled by volunteers and media outlets. Pawsitive Shelter Photography, a volunteer group whose work has been nationally recognized, takes high-quality pictures of the homeless pets, helping perspective adopters better visualize that pet situated in their home. Several local media outlets, including WOLF Fox 35, WESH Channel 2, Power95.3, K92.3 and the Orlando Sentinel, have begun highlighting the shelter pets on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
The shelter is still combating the pet overpopulation problem that faces the community and has developed programs to reduce the number of unwanted litters and keep pets with their current families. This resulted in a seven percent decrease in homeless animals entering the shelter from fiscal year 2014 to fiscal year 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ultimate goal is to reduce the number of unwanted pets and be able to find loving homes for all those in need,\u201d said Luther. \u201cWe chisel away at this goal each day and this award is a treasured milestone along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orange County Animal Services team member Janette Fleming also took home the award for \u201cEmployee of the Year.\u201d Janette provides a warm welcome to the more than 100,000 shelter visitors each year by working in the front lobby and assisting adopters.<\/p>\n