Pet Connection has a post up about increasing adoptions to end euthanasia in shelters. The idea here is that there are enough homes in America to take in all of the shelter pets euthanized, it’s just that most potential pet owners aren’t going to shelters. While sheltering can be a contentious topic (especially the whole “no kill” vs “traditional” thing), I don’t think anyone could argue that increasing shelter adoptions is a bad thing. And here’s where the problem comes in.
As I see it, many shelter and rescue workers simply do not put their best face forward. When someone walks into your organization wanting to adopt a pet, do you:
(a.) Greet them in a friendly way at the door and offer to help them pick the perfect dog for their family or
(b.) Tell them to sign in at the desk and complain to a coworker that there’s just too many people coming in as they leave to peruse the dog selection on their own, with no real background on the dogs?
I think we’d all like to hope that the answer is “a.” However, because real people (and real, stressed out people) are working at the front desk, it doesn’t always happen that way. Part of the problem here is that most people enter this field because they love animals and want to help them. That is absolutely not a bad thing. However, when you’re an “animal person” and you work all day with “animal people”, you start to lose touch with ordinary families. And that is not okay.
Those of us who have worked or do work in shelter need to remember that, in order to help the animals under our care, we need to serve the people who come through our door. These people generally do not care about the plight of puppy mill dogs or about the pet overpopulation crisis. They just want a pet.
Every kennel worker, vet tech, and dog walker in the shelter needs to be working on customer service at all times no matter what. Even if you’ve been having a terrible day and you’re overwhelmed with kittens, you need to put on a happy face and be helpful to the people coming in. The members of the public are not your enemy. They’re the people you rely on to adopt the animals you care about. You can’t do it without them.
Also, lecturing is not okay. It’s so, so easy to step up onto your podium and start lecturing potential pet owners on everything from puppy mills to dog parks. When someone is talking to you about dogs and says they’re thinking about purchasing a golden retriever because goldens are “so smart”, don’t automatically launch into a tirade about breeders, and about millions of shelter dogs dying, and about the horrors of puppy mills. Instead, start a friendly dialogue. Tell them about the cute shepherd mix you have in the shelter who’s really, really smart (“he already knows how to sit and how to shake hands!”) and very sweet (“he just loves kids and is great at all of our adoption events!”) Set up a meeting so that the potential owner can see that this dog, right here might be the one for them. Show them that he’s just as sweet and smart as the golden they were imagining. Sure, throw in that they’d be saving a life, too, and that shelter animals need a home and they’d be doing a great thing by rescuing one. Just don’t focus on the doom and gloom.
I can’t count the number of times that I’ve told current coworkers or friends about how I used to work in a shelter and they’ve told me that they wanted to adopt, but just couldn’t find the pet they wanted there. You know what? It’s often true. For all they know, that dog or cat wasn’t there. They couldn’t find him because nobody at the shelter was willing to jump up and facilitate a match in a friendly, non-pushy way.
More shelters and rescues need to make customer service a much bigger focus. This may sound over the top, but lives depend on it.
