Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Friedman.
Heather, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Sitting atop a seventeen-year career in digital marketing in both agency and corporate environments, I woke up one morning with a hollowness in my heart borne from the absence of great passion in my work. To fulfill my quest for purpose, I did a lot of soul searching, quit my high-paying corporate job, and found a dream job at a local nonprofit that is working to save the lives of animals in Atlanta. I joined LifeLine Animal Project in 2015, and I am so grateful to have discovered an opportunity to align my marketing expertise with a passion to help animals in what has proved to be the most rewarding role of my professional life.
Every day, I am privy to both the miracles of lifesaving and the heartbreak of managing open-intake municipal animal shelters. I see shelter teams cleaning kennels and vet teams working to save lives. I also see staff and volunteers advocating to get homeless pets out of the shelter and into loving homes by spending time with animals in need and sharing their unique stories with our community. I work with amazing teams both in and out of our shelters, and it is truly powerful to see our ideas bear fruit in execution when we are able to bring awareness to the plight of homeless animals and rally our community around the needs of the animals in our care.
Let me tell you a bit more about this organization that has captured my heart.
LifeLine was established in 2002 when our founder and CEO, Rebecca Guinn, quit her job as a successful criminal attorney following a visit to the DeKalb County Animal Shelter. When she learned firsthand that hundreds of animals were being killed weekly, she dedicated herself to opening a private shelter focusing on cruelty cases and special-needs animals needing rehabilitation. Hoping to slow the flow of animals going into shelters, LifeLine opened two spay/neuter clinics over the next few years.
With a focus on fulfilling a mission to end the euthanasia of healthy and treatable pets in the county shelters, LifeLine bid on (and won!) both the DeKalb and Fulton County animal shelter contracts and officially began managing those shelters in 2013. We just renewed our contracts for a second term.
Through broadening lifesaving programs, adoption promotions, surrender counseling, door-to-door and community outreach efforts, foster/volunteer support, and amazing rescue partnerships, LifeLine has made a tremendous impact in Atlanta, caring for over 39,500 animals in 2018 alone in our shelters, clinics, and communities. You can see the outcomes of our work here: LifeLineAnimal.org/infographic.
As we embark on the next chapter of our work this year, we announce with great excitement the opening of our new Community Animal Center located in Chamblee (in DeKalb County). This new center will act as a welcoming adoption center as well as a full-service, low-cost veterinary clinic. Our aim is to ensure that caring for pets is affordable and accessible to the Atlanta community. From minor surgery and dental work to x-rays and diagnostics, LifeLine will have the capacity to provide veterinary care for up to 20,000 animals annually. At our new shelter, our capacity to house 1,000 more animals per year will enable us to pull even more from the county shelters and to celebrate more than 2,000 pet adoptions each year.
We view building this community center as the critical next step in the journey to becoming a no-kill city with a focus on accessible and affordable health care, increasing adoptions, and getting the entire city involved in this monumental and transformational no-kill effort. While the shelters run by LifeLine provide the safety nets, we need this city to take the helm and rally behind lifesaving itself.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Both DeKalb and Fulton County animal shelters are open-admission shelters, which means we take in every animal regardless of medical condition, temperament, or age (and even species). With an average intake of 40 animals a day at each of these facilities, our shelters receive over 15,000 animals every year.
We assumed management of the DeKalb and Fulton shelters in 2013 with dismal lifesaving rates–61% and 39%, respectively. After just a few years under LifeLine’s management, the shelters are reaching annual lifesaving rates of 85-89% (a lifesaving rate of 90% is the nationally recognized standard for “no-kill”). In Fulton County, LifeLine also manages animal control and enforcement which allows us to work directly with communities to increase the safety of people and animals.
As for the struggles, the sheer volume of animals coming into our shelters is staggering. At any given time, there may be well over 1000 animals in our care. These numbers alone prove that decisions by citizens to adopt and spay and neuter their pets are critical in terms of the impact we can all make on saving lives with the choices we make.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about LifeLine Animal Project – what should we know?
LifeLine is a hidden gem in the Atlanta community, both from a lifesaving perspective and also as a staple in building a community that rallies around the animals in our city. From every angle possible, the organization approaches the challenge of saving lives and ending unnecessary shelter euthanasia as we continue to assess and provide the missing resources and programs to help Atlanta become a lifesaving community.
And here’s precisely where the good people of Atlanta can make a difference.
Looking for a fun way to get involved? Check out our Dog for the Day or Weekend Warrior programs, where you can take a dog out of the shelter for the day or weekend. The dogs get a break from shelter life while meeting potential adopters in and around the city. Participants can take dogs for hikes or runs in the park and usually spoil the pups with some fun food treats and toys along the way. It’s a great activity for families, too.
And speaking of fun, we work incredibly hard to enrich the lives our shelter pets. Last year, we implemented a program called “Dogs Playing for Life” to create safe, outdoor playgroups for shelter dogs to socialize and just be dogs. Our volunteers are instrumental in creating this opportunity for dogs to enjoy each other and themselves as we are able to observe their personalities and make notes about their play styles to create optimal foster and adoption matches.
On the home front, LifeLine is deeply invested in providing the tools and resources to help animals stay healthy, out of the shelters, and in homes with the people who love them. Through the efforts of our surrender counselors and community outreach program, we support our community pet owners by meeting them where they are. Through our Pets for Life program, we engage in door-to-door visits to homes in the seven lowest-income zip codes in Fulton County and provide free vaccinations, spay/neuter, veterinary care, and pet supplies. Last year alone, we helped 3,600 pets through this program. We also host four community Healthy Pets events per year (two in each county) where we provide free, on-the-spot vaccinations, microchips, spay/neuter vouchers, food, and pet supplies.
LifeLine operates the oldest and largest organized feral and stray cat assistance program in the area which has provided more than 37,000 below-cost feline sterilizations and vaccinations. You can spay/neuter a feral cat for only $25 at one of our clinics, and we’ll even loan you a humane trap!
And for those for whom the county shelters are too overwhelming to visit, we operate two smaller shelters in Decatur — one on Lake Street in Avondale Estates and another which is exclusively for cat adoptions.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
One quality that has helped fuel our passion and work is hope. Hope that people will open their hearts and give a shelter pet a chance. Hope that an animal entering our doors, coming from an unknown background and unimaginable experiences, will find a loving home, a soft bed, a daily meal, safety, and love. Hope that our work will continue to stem overpopulation and save more lives. Hope that our community sees the value in adopting from a shelter rather than from a pet store or a breeder. Hope that we give each individual animal a second chance based on personality and not on appearance or rumored reputation. Hope that one day there won’t be a need for sheltering as it exists today.
Pricing:
- Adoptions at our shelters are $85 for dogs, and $65 for cats.
- You can spay/neuter your pet at our clinics for $40 – $95 depending on sex and species.
Contact Info:
- Email: hfriedman@lifelineanimal.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifelineanimal/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LifeLineAnimalProject
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifelineanimal
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/LifeLineAnimal
Image Credit:
LifeLine Animal Project
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
