GUEST: Dr. Cindi Delany is a supervising shelter veterinarian in the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program, was the supervising shelter veterinarian at Yolo County (California) Animal Services for nine years, and is executive director of the nonprofit California Animal Shelter Friends. She has extensive experience in emergency care in animal shelters, high-volume spay/neuter, foster programs, and the use of technology and statistics in improving outcomes for animals. MAIN QUESTION: What can organizations do to keep animals from coming into shelters in the first place? TAKEAWAYS: * Time in a shelter is stressful for animals, anything we can do to reduce time spent there is beneficial to the animals. Providing support services to keep pets in homes and making return-to-owner processes easier and friendlier are two examples. * Having fewer animals in the shelter reduces the risk of disease transmission and allows you to put more time and resources into helping animals who truly need to be there or need special assistance. * The cost of taking in an animal is generally more expensive than helping keep that same animal in their original home, whether it’s providing food, medicine, veterinary treatment, or help with a rental pet deposit. * It doesn’t require more resources, instead you are shifting resources from caring for animals in the shelter to helping keep animals with their original families. *Start by looking at data to understand what animals are coming in and why. LINKS: * Shelter Med Portal, with lots of resources on shelter medicine  * UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program  * Leadership recommendation: PDF booklet by NextAfter titled: “5 Online Fundraising Habits to Quit in 2021” * NextAfter https://www.nextafter.com