{"id":2442,"date":"2020-05-27T20:44:26","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T20:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/?p=2442"},"modified":"2020-08-03T22:10:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T22:10:30","slug":"breaking-the-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.humanepa.org\/?p=2442","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Karel Minor, Chief Executive Offer\/President<\/em><\/h5>\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Humane Pennsylvania has been breaking all the rules.\u00a0 And we intend to continue to do so.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean breaking rules like the dummies at the bars and pool parties.\u00a0 We were following the quarantine rules before they were even officially \u201cthe rules\u201d because disease prevention is kind of our thing.\u00a0 Plus, we don\u2019t want to kill anyone\u2019s granny.\u00a0 I mean the rules for what is possible for an animal welfare organization, whether it\u2019s in a pandemic or not.<\/p>\n

We kept our hospitals open and serving the community.\u00a0 We kept adopting animals out and we\u2019ve been taking them in.\u00a0 We kept all our staff working.\u00a0 We expanded our services and coordinated over 120,000 pounds of pet food distribution in the past two months.\u00a0 All safely, all within the Governor\u2019s orders and health protocols.<\/p>\n

If we had played by the standard rules as they applied to so many other organizations, we\u2019d have cut staff, cut services, and helped fewer animals and people.\u00a0 Instead we reached out to more people and we changed how we operated so we could operate safely.\u00a0 Screw the rules, we have pets and people to help.<\/p>\n

It has not been without cost.\u00a0 We had several staff down and out from confirmed or likely COVID-19.\u00a0 We are front-line workers.\u00a0 Our work continued but our revenue has not.\u00a0 Our biggest spring fundraiser, the Art for Arf\u2019s Sake Auction which raises $100,000 each year had to be postponed until November.\u00a0 Our operating revenue has declined up to 80%.\u00a0 We have been aided by the generosity of our donors (thank you!) but it\u2019s not enough to offset long term losses if things continue on much longer.\u00a0 We were fortunate to be in a position to take advantage of the Federal emergency funding, but that\u2019s only an eight week salvation. \"\"<\/p>\n

How will we continue on?\u00a0 By breaking the rules some more, of course!\u00a0 And this time we need you to help.\u00a0 We will be making a change to one of our major fundraisers this year- I can\u2019t say what or how yet because our Director of Events, Lauren Henderson, will kill me if I spill the beans- which you\u2019ll hear more about soon.\u00a0 The capital campaign to raise the last half of the funds needed for our new Reading Animal Shelter and Community Hospital, came to a screeching halt, but is going to take an approach that is definitely breaking the rules.\u00a0 And believe me, the words \u201cninety-two cents a day\u201d will be coming your way soon.\u00a0 They will haunt you in your sleep.\u00a0 Ninety-two cents a day\u2026.<\/p>\n

We are breaking new ground in tele-vet medicine.\u00a0 We are finding new ways to deliver critical vaccines and services to larger numbers of people.\u00a0 We will be finding creative<\/em> ways around the vague prohibitions against so-called \u201celective\u201d treatments.\u00a0 We call them life-saving.\u00a0 We are pioneering video adoption screening and counseling and direct adoption delivery.\u00a0 Corona has killed enough people, we aren\u2019t going to allow it to result in needless animal death, too.<\/p>\n

Humane Pennsylvania has always been of the mindset that barriers are merely challenges.\u00a0 Rules can be changed.<\/a>\u00a0 We\u2019ve lived that belief and it\u2019s why we succeed when times are great, and we succeed when times aren\u2019t so great.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know how things will work out but as an organization we have always prepared for the worst while we were planning for the best<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We are going to come out of this smarter, stronger, and surer of ourselves.\u00a0 We hope you are going to be sticking by us (\u201cninety-two cents a day\u201d\u2026).\u00a0 I hope you are able to keep optimistic, too, because we are going to be here standing by for you, whether you and your pets need it or just to work on your behalf for those who do need our help right now.<\/p>\n

Thanks for being there for us so we can keep being there for them.<\/p>\n

Oh, what the heck, I\u2019ll break one more rule and just flat out ask you to make a donation<\/a> right here at the end.\u00a0 Go ahead, live dangerously.\u00a0 Give like you\u2019re at an Ozarks pool party.\u00a0 YOLO!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Karel Minor, Chief Executive Offer\/President During the COVID-19 pandemic, Humane Pennsylvania has been breaking all the rules.\u00a0 And we intend to continue to do so. I don\u2019t mean breaking rules like the dummies at the bars and pool parties.\u00a0 We were following the quarantine rules before they were even officially \u201cthe rules\u201d because disease …
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