From the Director

From the Executive Director of FCNMHP:

Northeast Florida had a great weekend for the animals and made huge strides towards becoming a no-kill community!

A run down of the adoption event:  

• 950 total adoptions - more than 96% of all pets available found homes
• This was the largest event PetSmart Charities has ever participated in, by number of visitors or number of adoptions! It is also the largest pet adoption event ever in the nation!
• 10,000+ attendees, not counting an additional 500+ volunteers and team members, participated in the event
• Each morning there was a crowd waiting to get in, numbering several hundred Friday and Saturday
• Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services found homes for all their dogs and all but three of their cats (the cats were absorbed by Lucky Cat Adoptions and FCNMHP)
• Clay County Animal Control went home completely empty, adopting all their pets
• Jacksonville Humane Society went home with only one dog and three cats
• All of the pets from the FCNMHP Adoption Center found homes

 This event will decrease killing in local shelters for several months.

In addition to this huge adoption event, the FCNMHP Pet Food Bank distribution was Saturday, handing out 26,000 pounds of pet food to needy First Coast families. The FCNMHP spay/neuter clinic performed 100 surgeries each day Friday and Saturday (as they do 6 days a week) and our low-cost veterinary clinic, combined with the Jacksonville Humane Society veterinary clinic, saw more than 100 pets for medical assistance. There were also teams of staff members at each shelter/adoption center deep cleaning empty kennels.

 WE ARE MAKING A HUGE DIFFERENCE! Every department in our organization had to step up to make this happen and there was never a doubt in my mind that they would!

The cooperation that was shown among all the shelters, rescues and groups is unheard of anywhere in else in the country. The teams of Jacksonville Humane Society, Jacksonville Animal Care & Protective Services and FCNMHP worked seamlessly and as one team.

Volunteers and staff from all groups were amazing and leaped to assist the event in any way possible without regard to which group they were with. In addition to staff and volunteers, other resources were shared as well. Crates were treated as the event's resources and shared where needed, supplies were shared with no issues, and fun and great success was had by all!

We have created an army of those that care about animal issues and this army will not rest until victory is achieved!

Without the help of our sponsor and supporters we would not have achieved these goals. Special recognition to PetSmart Charities and Best Friends Animal Society for all their support in making a difference in Northeast Florida.

Rick DuCharme 

Founder/Executive Director

First Coast No More Homeless Pets

Help us make Jacksonville a no-kill community!

  

Pictures from the event:

http://photos.jacksonville.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=1503241&CategoryID=14633

Final Update on Mega Adoption

Yesterday was as big of a day as Friday and Saturday. There were at least 500 people waiting to get in and there was a mad dash once the doors were opened. What a sight!!! At the end of the day the Jacksonville Humane Society posted that there were 908 adoptions for the 3 day event. This event was co-sponsored by PetsMart Charities and Best Friends as well as First Coast No More Homeless Pets. The goal, which many thought was too high was 600.  They increased that goal by 50%. One other thing that came to light was that the adoption fees were lowered on Sunday to $10 from $25 by the generous donation of an anonymous donor who made up the difference between the two fees. I know that there was some worry about the cost of adopting VS vetting the potential adopters.  There are no absolutes, but the folks adopting were families most with children. It's also a given even with the Rescue we are affiliated with that adoptions go wrong and Lucky Cat Adoptions is so careful with who they adopt to. We have to believe that many of these cats and dogs who were on death row, are now in a much better place. The high kill shelters were also apart of this event. I hope that all of those adopted got a wonderful forever home, I just can't help but believe that they are so much better at someone home than locked up in a cage. Even Lucky Cat keeps most of their cats on display in PetsMart during the week.

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One other great thing happened to our Dad. He got to nosekiss with network with all the bigwigs who came by and admired his condos. He is now going to be working and helping the Humane Society. Next month they have scheduled a huge adoption for all of the Caboodle Ranch cats, if you are not familiar with that sad situation, just google Caboodle Ranch. I know there are pros and cons on both sides, but knowing just a slight bit of non-biased insider information, I think I come down on the side of protecting the cats and adopting them through the Humane Society (a NO KILL shelter). There are two or more sides to every issue, so I leave it to everyone to form their own opinion on Caboodle Ranch.

But he was offered a chance to show his condos at this adoptathon. He is also donating several condos to the Humane Society cat rooms. Yesterday he gave them one, and said he would get a second one done for them soon. He was so thrilled to be offered this chance.

So we think all in all this was a thrilling weekend. The animals did well, the folks who put this event together were beyond happy and so was our Dad who did much better than he thought, plus as an added bonus he got to meet many nice folks in our area who rescue and also introduce himself to all of the top people who run the shelters. So now Dad is really busy making more condos to make more kitties happy!!

Adoptathon

ADOPTATHON!!!!

This past weekend, the local chapter of the Humane Society of Jacksonville, ACC, and First Coast No More Homeless Pets put together a mega Adoptathon.
Adoptions were only $25.
$20 of that was for the license that is needed, so really all it cost was $5 to adopt an animal this weekend. So for $5 you got an animal that had all of it's shots, neuter or spay,assorted things like food (and Daddy's scratcher) and other goodies, what a deal!
Who could say NO?
The hope was to get 250 animals adopted.
Well that hope was WELL exceeded.
OVER 300 animals got forever homes.

Daddy works with FCNMHP and they asked him if he would like to have his cat condos available so he said yes! He donated cat scratchers to every person who adopted a kitty!

With the grand success of the event they are going to do it all over again in May!

Here is the ASPCA trailer.
They were a big help!

Isn't he cute? He was so friendly!

This little guy was so afraid, he was only 6 months old.

Another cutie up for adoption!

This was the Florida Times Union write up that ran on 4/1/12.

Legislative Victory in Florida

Community cats and spay and neuter programs are big winners following passage of Duval County ordinance....read more here....Legislative Victory in Florida