Building a Feline-Friendly Community
Presenter: Nadine Gourkow ~ Esteemed researcher, educator and companion animal activist
All of us working for feline friends have experienced moments of despair, wondering how to shift from a world where millions of cats are abandoned, abused, and put to death, to one where cats are valued and every kitten has a loving, forever home.
"Although creative solutions, devotion and hard work have done much to improve the plight of cats in the last few years, much remains to be done," believes Nadine Gourkow. "Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an innovative approach that can help cat welfare professionals and activists better understand the root causes of problems. Furthermore, it provides guidance in the development of effective targeted solutions and a methodology for measuring effectiveness. The EBP movement has already been adopted by many in disciplines such as Social Work, Education, and Veterinary Medicine, among others. Recently EBP has been used by some animal welfare professionals, yielding effective measurable solutions to human/cat problems in their community."
Nadine’s Summit presentation will review a number of concepts central to EBP and describe leading edge case studies including the CatSense System – an evidence based approach to the care of cats in animal shelters. Her presentation will be followed by a though-provoking and dynamic brainstorming session on how evidence based practice could be applied to different aspects of cat welfare work.
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