Meet Michigan Pet Alliance – Nonprofit Professional Trade Association Representing Michigan’s Animal Welfare

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Below is our recent interview with Courtney Protz-Sanders from Michigan Pet Alliance:

Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?

A: Michigan Pet Alliance is our state’s first and only professional trade association for animal welfare advocates, shelters, rescues, nonprofit organizations, individuals and businesses. As a nonprofit organization, Michigan Pet Alliance collaborates with its membership to move animal welfare legislation forward at the state and local levels.

Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement? 

A: In addition to serving as a united front for animal welfare in Michigan, the Alliance connects members to professionals within the animal welfare community and gives them a voice for change and improvement.

Members receive the ability to be part of a group helping leaders, policy makers and funders understand the true cost and benefits of quality work for animals and the hidden costs of the inadequate or poorly supported systems of care. Membership also provides access to data reporting, including trends, benchmarking, challenges, case studies, assessing and demonstrating needs for animals and better supported funded and/or effective service organizations.

Members will also receive access and discounts to professional growth and development opportunities, including webinars, training, seminars and conferences, as well as free postings for job openings and the resume bank.

Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?

A: Michigan Pet Alliance and its members work together to ensure every Michigan animal shelter, home-based rescue organization and all other groups and organizations providing services to companion animals operate using industry best practices. Uniting our voices, we speak for those who cannot speak for themselves to create state and local laws and regulations that improve care and eliminate cruelty for all companion animals in Michigan.

Michigan Pet Alliance also offers a reasonably priced in-shelter training program that teaches animal shelter management, staff and volunteers how to address the psychological needs and welfare of the shelter’s animals, while considering the physical opportunities and limitations of the shelter.

Instruction includes both classroom and hands-on learning. Available sessions include Assessing Canine Behavior, Canine Behavior Modification, Canine Body Language, Canine Playgroups, Force-free Training, Multisensory Enrichment, Safe and Humane Handling, Stress Reduction, Adoption Events, Organizing a Transfer Partner Program, and Organizing / Expanding a Volunteer Program.

Q: What can we expect from your company in the next six months? What are your plans?

A: Our Policy & Advocacy committee prepares testimony and legislative correspondence in support of and/or in opposition to proposed legislation that will affect Michigan’s pets and their owners. In the current session, Michigan Pet Alliance and its members actively support House Bills 4784, 4881 and 4882.

Our Education & Training committee is finalizing in-shelter workshops for this October, as well as preparing for the 2022 statewide animal welfare conference.

Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?

A: For many years, animal welfare legislation in Michigan has been dead on arrival. The state has been unable to pass some of the most basic animal protection bills. Forming the state’s first and only nonprofit association to represent the interests of companion animals and their caregivers, be it owners or shelters and rescues, will force our legislators to sit up, take notice and listen. Power in numbers is more than a phrase. It’s a truth and by speaking with one collective voice on behalf of the voiceless, we can make great strides and lifesaving improvements for dogs and cats in Michigan. All it takes is collaborations and membership. Every organization and individual in Michigan who cares about the plight of our pets can join.

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