I wish there was a time when shelters become obsolete, but until they do, ALL shelters should follow Best Friend's lead. They are amazing. I do hope to visit one day.
Here's a tearjerker about how Mike Arms (now works at BF) got into rescue:
The Story of Our President-Mike Arms
Michael Arms was an enthusiastic young man who set out to change the world, one puppy at a time. After completing his education and serving a tour of duty as a United States Marine in Vietnam, Mike returned to his home in New York and accepted a position with the Humane Society.
While he took great pride in saving the lives of orphaned pets by finding loving, permanent homes for them, the stress of all the pets he could not save was beginning to take its toll. He was losing weight. He tossed and turned through one sleepless night after another. Convinced that there was nothing he could do, he tendered his resignation and accepted a position outside of the animal welfare industry.
During his final week, just as he was ready to leave the office one evening, a call came in informing the Humane Society about a dog that had been stuck by a car in the Bronx. When Mike’s secretary asked what she should do he told her to send a truck out to pick up the dog. “There’s nobody available. They’ve all gone home for the day.” So Mike removed his suit jacket, put on a technician’s coat, and drove to the site to pick up the dying puppy.
When he arrived, it was immediately obvious that the pup’s back was broken. Bending over to pick it up, he was interrupted by two men standing in a doorway. “What do you think you’re doing?” they asked. Mike explained that the puppy was hurt and that he was going to take it to the Humane Society.
“No you’re not.”
“Why, is it your dog?” asked Arms.
“No, but we have a bet on how long it’s going to take before it dies.”
“You guys are really sick,” he said, stooping once again to pick up the little body.
“That was when these two heroes attacked me from behind. They stabbed me; they beat me, and left me there in the street to die with the puppy.”
Just as Mike Arms was slipping into unconsciousness, the pup crawled over to him and began licking his face. “There was no way that the little guy should have been able to reach me with his broken back. But somehow he pulled himself over to me with his front paws and brought me back to life.”
“There in the gutter I prayed and promised God that if he would allow me to live, I would never turn my back on an orphaned pet.”
The puppy didn’t survive, but Mike Arms did. And since that time Mike has dedicated his life to saving orphaned pets. He is credited with finding loving, lifelong homes for more dogs and cats than anyone else in history.
Mike Arms’ success as an “Adoptions Guru” began during his years as Director of the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, New York. While the shelter was having success finding homes for many of their pets, Mike felt that it wasn’t enough and he began searching for ways to increase public awareness about the animals in the kennels awaiting the arrival of their new families.
One idea that Mike implemented was the first “Adopt-a-thon”. “We stayed open for 36 straight hours to find homes for the animals. We held activities all weekend long to bring families into the shelter. The result was more adoptions than we had ever completed during a single weekend.” That was the first Adopt-a-thon. Within a few years the annual event grew to international prominence including shelters and rescue organizations around the world.
As Mike Arms’ reputation and success spread he found that more and more of his time was being spent traveling around the country, helping other shelters to increase their adoption rates and decrease the number of pets that were being euthanized because they had no homes. “I finally had to make a choice. I decided to leave North Shore and devote my time to helping other shelters.”
While his work as one of the world’s most successful and respected animal shelter consultants was rewarding, the travel commitments and time away from his family proved to be a heavy burden. “I wasn’t sure how much longer I could continue to keep that pace. Then, during a consulting tour, I spent some time with an old friend who was a shelter director in San Diego.”
Arms recalls that one day, during a lunch break, his friend suggested they take a drive to Helen Woodward Animal Center located just north of San Diego. “I had never seen a shelter like it. In addition to dog and cat adoptions, they had an active education program, therapy services both on and off site, a state of the art large-animal hospital and a pet boarding facility.” But he recalls that the staff made the greatest impression on him. “We stopped by unannounced. Everywhere we went there were staff members or volunteers ready to provide information and answer our questions. I was very impressed.”
A few months later, Arms made a decision to accept the last job of his illustrious career. He became President and Executive Director of Helen Woodward Animal Center.
“While the Center had an excellent reputation in the community, I felt that there was more we could be doing.” He was right. Under Arms’ direction, Helen Woodward Animal Center soon doubled then tripled the number of adoptions completed each month. The Education program, already successful, began setting records for the number of youngsters that were receiving humane education rising from fewer than 4,000 to more than 33,000 per year.
Within a few months after his arrival Arms developed a plan for an adoption drive to run between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. He called it “Home 4 the Holidays”. “Nobody wants to think about their best friend waking up behind bars on a holiday morning. And we know that more families invite pets into their homes during the holiday season than at any other time of year. We just needed to spread the word and encourage people to save lives by adopting shelter pets…not just Helen Woodward Animal Center...”
In 1999 Arms organized all 14 shelters in the San Diego area to work together during the first Home 4 the Holidays campaign. The result was more than 2,500 adoptions. Some shelters reported that they had increased their adoption rates by 30 to 50 percent over previous years.
Word of this success spread and during the second Home 4 the Holidays drive Helen Woodward Animal Center was joined by 130 shelters and rescue groups in 5 states. As a result 20,000 orphaned dogs and cats began the New Year in their new homes.
Home 4 the Holidays 2001 grew dramatically when 450 animal shelters in 4 countries climbed on the bandwagon to save lives and find homes for orphaned animals. Arms recalls, “I had always been proud of my work at North Shore and all of the lives we saved. I never dreamed that we would have this kind of success with Home 4 the Holidays.”
But Home 4 the Holidays was successful. During the 2001 drive the participants reported 100,124 adoptions, making Home 4 the Holidays the largest pet adoption drive him history! “We were so pleased with the results, but in the back of our minds there was always the thought of the animals that we had not saved…the ones that had been euthanized due to a lack of space. The ones who woke up on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s mornings looking out from behind bars.”
When Home 4 the Holidays 2002 kicked off 9 days before Thanksgiving, nearly 1,200 animal shelters and rescue groups in 20 countries around the world were working together to find homes for the pets entrusted to their care. By the time the campaign ended on the first weekend of the New Year more than 180,000 pets had been adopted, setting a new world record.
Home 4 the Holidays 2003 continued the tradition of breaking adoption records. More than 1,300 animal shelters, adoption centers, and pet rescued groups around the world joined “paws” to successfully place more than 261,000 pets in the homes where they will spend the rest of their lives.
“I’m often asked why I’ve dedicated my life to saving animals. I’ll never forget that brave puppy with a broken back, crawling through a gutter in the Bronx, to bring me back to life. And I’ll never forget the promise that I made to God that day. How could I possibly think of doing anything else?”
MY IDOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lorie
