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A whole new world for companion animal services is within our reach. We are leaving the past behind to build a new, better animal welfare system focused on keeping people and pets together.
American Pets Alive!’s Human Animal Support Services project is leading a growing national and international movement to transform animal services through innovative programs and services built to support people and pets within their communities.
In this model, shelters assist the majority of pets without separating them from their families or community. We are bringing the animal welfare world and community members together to engage in partnerships that support the bond of people and animals.
To collectively build community-centered animal services to better meet the needs of animals and people where they live.
A world where there is a collective responsibility to care for animals, every person has equitable access to and is actively engaged in helping animals in need, and the relationships between animals and people are supported by government and non-profit organizations, within and outside of animal welfare.
Animal welfare solutions are rooted in the values and needs of each community.
We emphasize the interconnections of people, animals and the environment.
We demonstrate an ongoing commitment to self-evaluation and self-critique, to addressing power imbalances and to developing mutually beneficial partnerships with communities we serve.
We consistently work to combat discrimination and inequity in animal services and to build programs and services that are accessible and welcoming to all.
We believe every animal who enters a shelter should receive urgent, individualized treatment and care, with the goal of a live outcome.
We proactively work to build strong and lasting human-animal relationships in our communities and affirm our central role of protecting the bonds between people and animals.
We ensure people working in animal services organizations have access to support, resources, and information to promote their physical and emotional well-being.
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HASS was founded in April 2020, during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis, as an urgent, rapid project for animal services organizations to help each other in adapting operations during the pandemic.
In collaboration with dozens of industry leaders lending their time and expertise, we built a comprehensive strategy to manage the crises associated with the pandemic, by engaging communities to save animals’ lives in the context of the constantly shifting animal welfare landscape.
Across the country, the plan to build a new model worked. Shelters innovated and adapted lifesaving community-focused programs and services. Communities joined animal services organizations to protect pets, and to keep and get them in homes through fostering, adoption, safety net programs, collaboration among organizations, and more, during these unprecedented times.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people have come together to reduce the number of pets entering animal shelters to the lowest in history. Over the past 18 months, we’ve learned that animal welfare organizations can harness the will and power of their communities to be part of solving the problems that lead to shelter intake—like job loss, eviction, hospitalization, and even expensive vet bills.
In this time of tremendous uncertainty, HASS has provided a path forward. And having seen this success in action, we continue to forge ahead creating and sharing policies, tools, and training, advancing meaningful, transformative change.
The COVID-19 crisis showed the urgent need for this reimagining of animal services—and also showed the power of the community-centered model to prioritize helping people keep their pets, and keeping pets in homes, reserving the shelter for animals who truly need in-shelter services, and to protect and strengthen communities as a result.
Together, we are creating a new world for animal services. One that is humane, cost effective, and collaborative, preserving and honoring the human-animal bond, and saving animals’ lives.
With support from The Association of Animal Welfare Advancement and The Humane Society of the United States
January 2021Pro Resources formally established to provide organizations with tools to implement Human Animal Support Services drawing people from over 125 countries to the HASS website.
February 2021The HASS project launched in June 2020, with 33 pilot shelters across the United States and Canada. These 33 shelters serve a combined total of more than 20 million people with an estimated total of more than 11.3 million pets. And our project is constantly growing with the new opportunity to become a HASS Partner Organization.
The HASS Working Groups are made up of animal welfare and human support services professionals across the world. They come together to tackle specific topics and barriers around changing the face of animal sheltering as we know it.
Over 1,500 animal welfare professionals across the world are involved with HASS, meeting weekly in working group calls, Job-Alikes, and in other purposeful gatherings to collaborate, share ideas, and drive the Human Animal Support Services project forward.
12 educational toolkits so far in HASS Pro Resources are being developed by industry leaders on urgent topics like: Keeping Families Together through evictions; lost pet reunification; supported self-rehoming; and more.
A Job-Alike gives animal welfare professionals weekly opportunities to network with peers doing the same work, to discuss common issues, ask questions, brainstorm solutions, and share program ideas .
And we are growing still! The project is now, for the first time since our launch, opening up to new partner organizations. We’d love to include you! Join our movement. Get involved.
Human Animal Support Services Is Spreading Worldwide
Take a look through the map below to see all the organizations involved in the Human Animal Support Services Project.
The HASS Project cycle illustrates the phases and projects of the HASS strategic plan. Our team, partner organizations and working groups have been hard at work on the creation of HASS and making it a sustainable model. As we advance and open the HASS project up to more partner organizations, we’re moving into phase 3, the education and implementation phase of the cycle. We’re always learning from our partner communities, making modifications, and testing new programs, refining the HASS model. Click on each section of the cycle to see what the phases are and the milestones within each phase.
Stay up to date on everything going on with Human Animal Support Services in the punniest newsletter in animal welfare, Collaborate and Learn.
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