Presented at the American Pets Alive No-Kill Conference 2014.

1. Data: Why It Is Critical To Success
And How To Keep Up With It!

2. What is the data you need to track?
Everything that happens to the animals
while under your care.
Intake
• Transfer from a shelter
• Owner Surrender
• Over the Counter Stray Surrender
• Returns from adopters
• Born in Shelter
Medical
• Spay/Neuter
• Microchips
• Vaccines
• Flea meds, dewormers, heartworm
tests, FeLV/FIV tests
• Illness/Injury treatments
• Rabies vaccines and certificates
Behavior
• Intake behavior (O/S notes, behavior
at the shelter prior to intake)
• Behavior work/training
• Bite information
• Foster notes
Marketing
• Pictures/Videos
• Biographies
Outcome
• Adoptions
• Euthanasia
• Died in Shelter
• Returned to Owner
• Lost in Care (Stolen or Escaped)
• Transfer to Other Rescue

3. Why Does This Matter?
Staying organized is critical to your success!
You need to know where your animals are at all times, be able to access
those animals and know what happened to them.
You need the data to be available years down the road.
Easily searchable is key!
Data might not be as fun as
cuddling kittens but its important!
Don’t be like this guy 

4. WHY CONT.
Legal Ramifications
• Defines Ownership
• Prevent Owner Surrender Lawsuits
• Veterinary Records
• Contracts with Outside Agencies
Reporting
• Grant writing
• Internal Audits/Goal Setting
• Contracts

5. Staff Performance Measures
Money in shelters is always tight, and paid positions must have maximum
productivity to survive.
Staff that work from home can be especially difficult to track productivity.
People will always want more staff for every department, how can you fairly
assess if that area really has grown enough to warrant more staff?
Dozens of reports available to help you!

7. REMEMBER: ALTHOUGH DATA IS NOT AS FUN AS FLUFFY
PUPPIES, IT IS VITAL TO YOUR SUCCESS. SET IT UP
EARLY ON AND SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF TROUBLE
LATER!

8. What System To Use?
At Austin Pets Alive! and San Antonio Pets Alive! we use PetPoint web based software

9. PetPoint Information
• Cost – Free
• How to join – www.petpoint.com or (866) 630-PETS(7387)
• Set up and Training
• Have ALL your key people/team leaders involved in this initial process
Staff To Manage The Data
• Data Manager/Analyst
• Data entry staff – “night owls”

10. Data Staff Costs
It takes ~50min/animal of data entry from start to finish throughout the system.
So if you intake 100 animals per week, you’ll need ~83hrs/wk data entry staff
+ Data Manager (~10-20hrs/wk depending on responsibilities)
Hire people that can type quickly!
Have them take a typing test in front of you
during the interview, require a minimum of 50
or 60WPM.
Free fast online typing test:
www.typingtest.com

11. How To Get Data From Here To There
End of Day Reporting (EOD)
What: A comprehensive report compiled by staff that shows everything that
happened that day
What’s in it: A synopsis cover sheet and then supporting documents.
Who does it: Every where you have something the onsite supervisor is
responsible for compiling.
How is it submitted: Scan/Email, Fax (myfax.com), take pictures with a cell
phone and email, whatever you have to do to get it submitted electronically
Where does it go?: a Google Group that forwards to everyone that needs it or
a centralized email box (i.e. paperwork@austinpetsalive.org).
When: MUST BE EVERY DAY WITHOUT FAIL AT END OF DAY

12. EOD Synopsis
Hand written synopsis
page – quick and
easy but not
searchable and bad
handwriting can
cause problems so
not ideal

13. Eod Synopsis
Typed EOD
synopsis as an
email. Makes
it searchable
which is
nice, no hand
writing
confusion.
Need access
to a computer
though which
can be tough
for places like
PetSmart.

14. Checks And Balances
Mistakes WILL happen – typos, things forgotten when the animals are moving
quickly, etc.
Must have checks and balances – at least 2 people looking at the data in different
directions in case one of them misses something.
Run reports every day out of PetPoint to compare to the EODs to make sure nothing
missed!

15. Data to Collect - Intakes
• Animal Name, ID#, Age, Sex, Breed, Color(s)
• Intake medical (vaccines, intake work up, chip #, spay/neuter status)
• Behavior Evaluations, Owner Surrender behavior info (good with kids/pets, etc)
• Picture, even if not good. Can always put in a better one later.
• Where its going (location – i.e. foster home, onsite shelter, etc.)
• Where it came from (what shelter? Stray vs o/s? Public intake?)
• Intake reason (medical problems? Behavior problems? Age? Space? Time (stray hold
up)?)
• Returns – returned by adopters including reason they are returning

16. Forms You’ll Need For Intake
Kennel card/Animal Information Sheet
Medical Intake Form
Owner Surrender Form
Adoption Return Form (can be same as O/S form)

17. Intake Kennel Card

18. Owner Surrender Form – last page

19. Locations
Once you pull an animal from the shelter, where all is it going prior to the
outcome?
Foster
• Foster Sign out Sheet
• Foster Transfer
• Foster Return to Organization
Onsite Locations
• Onsite locations (i.e. your shelter, PetSmart, PetCos) – track who is going to
and from.
• Daily census essential to catch mistakes!
Other
• Vet clinics, boarding facilities, emergency clinics

20. Location Cont.
How to make sure locations
stay up to date
• Team leaders in charge of
their areas
• Data team double checks
on EODs and confirms
updates
• Daily Census
It is everyone’s job to ensure
no animals get lost in the
system!

21. Daily Census
Each onsite location submits a Daily Census to ensure data in PetPoint is accurate.
First they run a report in PetPoint to see what animals PetPoint says are in their
location, then they walk the kennels and compare to see what animals actually are
physically in their location, and report discrepancies on a Census Discrepancy Report
included in EOD.

22. Medical
• Medical Data Logs
• Medical Request Forms for Onsite Animals
• Rabies Certificates (vets only, must be onsite)
• Parvo Forms
*Note – have a
plan for
medical
performed by
external clinics!

23. Behavior
Behavior Incident Forms
Behavior information on Owner Surrender Forms or Adoption Return
Forms
Behavior Logs/Documentation of behavior evaluations from your
behavior staff
PetPoint can hold 3 photos, 1 youtube video, and a biography of the
animal. These will automatically upload to your website and be
removed from the website when the animal leaves your care.
Marketing volunteers can upload this information rather than the data
team.
An online form for fosters to fill out to upload photos/bio/video can be
useful, or an inbox (marketing@yourorganization.org) for fosters to
email the materials to.
Marketing Materials

24. Outcomes
An “Outcome” is when the animal is no longer owned by your organization
and the record is “complete”. At this point the animal will be “released” out
of your care in the system.
Adoption – a finalized adoption
Died – passed away while in your care
Euthanasia – Was euthanised while in your care
Transfer Out – Transfer to another rescue (i.e. a purebred Rescue Group
that works with you)
Return to Owner – the original owner wants to reclaim the animal

25. Adoption
• Adoption Contract
• Adoption Application
• Adoption check list (the things the counselor goes over with the adopter)
• Ringworm Disclosure
• Other documentation for adopters - behavior or illness handouts, etc.
• Foster Home Adoptions – ppwk system
• Onsite animals include in EOD

26. Insurance And Microchips
Insurance – make sure you have a system in place for dealing with the
24petwatch insurance if you utilize that. Adopters MUST register
within a small window for it to work!
• A handout at the time of adoption that explains rules (no pre-existing
conditions, $75 deductible, $750 max payout, etc)
Microchips – Registration information
Email – Data team emails insurance and chip ppwk to adopters.

27. Died And Euthanasia
• Exact date it died
• Reason
• How to find out
Rescue
Consider having a rescue transfer form and rescue application
form, animals sent to rescue should be included in EOD as an
outcome
RTO
Lost/Stolen
These will NOT be counted towards your live release rate so try to
minimize them. If a foster refuses to return an animal to your
organization, consider “adopting” the animal to them for free rather
than reporting them as stolen.
This is an administrative function only.

28. Asilomar Accords
Asilmar Reporting is not something you have to do but it is something PetPoint can do.
• What is it: http://www.asilomaraccords.org/
• Why does it matter: Some grants require you to create Asilomar Reports
• How does it work: Choose the Asilomar Status at intake and outcome of animal.
• What is a status: Asilomar Statuses define what kind of shape the animal is in
medically or behaviorally

29. Thanks for coming!