Meet Lisa Milot of Athenspets

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Milot.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Athenspets started in 2001 as a website to advertise the animals at Athens-Clarke County Animal Control, to help find them adoptive or foster homes. In 2015, I incorporated it and made it a 501(c)(3) so that we could also raise funds to provide for the medically necessary care of the shelter animals, spay/neuter for select shelter animals, and spay/neuter of community pets that were at a high risk of adding to pet overpopulation in our area. It has become more successful than I ever imagined!

Thanks to the support we’ve received from volunteers, donors, and animal control staff, we have managed to reduce the number of kittens and puppies impounded each year by approximately 1/3, which bodes well for the future, and have made it so few healthy, adoptable animals are euthanized at the shelter. We’ve also been able to save many dogs and cats that would have been euthanized for humanitarian reasons by providing immediate medical care after a life-threatening injury.

This year, we saw our volunteer base broaden quite a bit through the launch of our “Athenspets Advocate” program, where volunteers choose a shelter animal or two to spend time with and publicize on social media until the animal is adopted. The energy and creativity of the Advocates have really inspired all of us to come up with new ways to help our shelter animals.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As with any nonprofit, we’re constrained by the funds we have available. Moreover, most of have jobs and we all have pets and families of our own, which limit the time we can devote to Athenspets.

We’ve taken these limitations as a challenge to be more efficient with the resources we have. For example, another volunteer (Jessie Dyer) and I analyze data from the shelter programs for academic research for our jobs, but what we uncover allows us to refine the shelter programs. Volunteers worked with shelter staff to change around some of their vetting protocols to more efficiently use the funds they have–every dollar they save is one less dollar we need to raise to ensure the animals receive the care they deserve. And the social media posts by the Advocates are free to create and easy to disseminate, drawing a lot of attention to our animals without creating much work for any one person.

Athenspets – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Athenspets is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) dedicated to helping the animals at Athens-Clarke County Animal Control find adoptive homes or rescue placements and to reducing pet overpopulation in the Athens area.

Most people know of us through our website, www.athenspets.net, which is updated daily to show pictures and include stories about the animals at the shelter. While the website is our best-known component and critical to reuniting lost pets with their families and helping shelter animals find new homes, behind the scenes we have partnered with other local groups to help animals find and stay in loving, if economically impoverished, homes.

When Animal Control staff encounters community members who need a little help to care for their pets, we do our best to either provide the care or to refer them to someone who can do so. For example, we recently covered the cost of rabies vaccinations and spay/neuter surgeries for the pets of a woman referred to us by an Animal Control staff member. The woman’s landlord required the animals be altered and in compliance with state vaccination requirements to be able to keep them. Without our help, the woman would have either been required to get rid of her pets or she would have lost her home.

We have close partnerships with area rescue groups and do our best to provide them with the support they need to take in our neediest animals, whether it’s having pets altered before they go to a foster home or providing sponsorship to cover the extra costs of animals recovering from injuries or illnesses.

At this point, we even have a class of third graders helping create flyers to advertise our neediest animals!

Everything we do requires teamwork and I’m proud of the team we have, all dedicated to doing what they can so the neediest animals in our area get the care they deserve.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me is an improvement over the status quo, however small, while maintaining personal balance.

It is very easy for volunteers in animal rescue to lose themselves–there are so many needy animals and people that it can be overwhelming. So, helping as many animals as I can while making enough time for myself and my family is my definition of success for my role in Athenspets.