Introducing the 2024 Carole Noon and Outstanding Sanctuary Award Winners
On Friday, October 24, we held a virtual ceremony celebrating the winners of our 2024 Carole Noon and Outstanding Sanctuary awards. We had a great time introducing our award winners and hearing more about their stories, which definitely got emotional at times.
Read all about the winners here.
You can also view a recording of the virtual awards ceremony on our website. Also available at this link are the recordings of the webinars we held leading up to the awards ceremony which included topics on grant writing, building stronger sanctuary teams, developing youth programs and behavioral management.
Save the Date – Ensure Safe Havens for Animals Worldwide This Giving Tuesday!
Your support this Giving Tuesday, December 3, will ensure that animal sanctuaries uphold the highest standards of care, safety, and respect for the animals who call these places home.
Accredited animal sanctuaries rely on regular, in-person site visits from our dedicated GFAS staff to uphold the highest standards of animal care and welfare. During these site visits, our team rigorously evaluates everything from daily care routines to medical services to the habitats that offer animals a safe, comfortable home. These visits are the foundation of our accreditation process, ensuring each sanctuary meets the standards animals deserve.
Over the next year, GFAS staff needs to conduct 75 sanctuary site visits, but rising costs of travel have put a strain on our ability to conduct these essential visits. We’re launching a campaign to raise $10,000 to cover a portion of these critical travel expenses, allowing our team to continue visiting and supporting sanctuaries worldwide.
Ways to support our campaign include:
- Donate to GFAS
- Sharing this newsletter with your family, friends, and professional networks
- Follow us on social media and share our content. Simply click the social media icons at the bottom of this newsletter!
Thanks for considering a gift to protect animals. Your support will help us meet this urgent need and continue supporting sanctuaries that give animals a second chance.
P.S. Don’t forget to stay tuned to our social media, as over the next three weeks we will share the stories of True Sanctuaries and their animal residents who have been touched by our work at GFAS.
Pro-tips We Picked Up at BCSA Conference 2024
We were thrilled to be part of this year’s Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance Conference in beautiful Providence, RI! A huge thank you to Verified Rustic Acres Wildcat Rescue for hosting. While we enjoyed the company of sanctuary folks, we also picked up some incredible tips from the speakers.
- Home Sanctuary Programs – a hybrid model, partially inspired by the microsanctuary movement, that builds capacity, focuses on stewardship over ownership, and can be applied to a number of species. Learn more at https://www.fosterparrots.com/placement
- Sanctuaries form an integral part of the Wildlife Confiscations Network, in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Several GFAS sanctuaries are already part of this network with further expansion planned. Another part of this effort is the Not a Pet Campaign, in partnership with IFAW, which provides shareable resources and education to address the illegal wildlife trade. See more at https://www.notapet.net/.
- Sanctuaries are critical to advocacy work and lawmakers take sanctuary voices very seriously as hands-on experts. With a distinctive voice, the sanctuary community together holds great power for change. We encourage you to take small but meaningful steps to engage in these efforts. 3 quick ideas: Endorse legislation, invite local lawmakers to be a part of your community to build relationships, engage your network through social media on these topics.
- Synovetin – a new treatment for arthritis – could be a game-changer for sanctuary residents. While costly, this new injection (a radioactive isotope which stops joint inflammation for up to 1 year with one injection) has been used in humans, dogs, ducks and big cats, with clinical trials being done in horses to great effect. Traditional pain medications can be given concurrently. Treatment locations are available here. If you’d like to speak directly to the drug rep, contact us for more information.
- AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, and more are already being incorporated into nonprofit operations for everything from drafting fundraising emails, social media posts, to analyzing donor information, marketing strategies, and even compiling staff schedules. Advisors warn that we should all be considering how we can and want to incorporate AI into our work, but that we inevitably will be forced to do so in order to keep up with the increased capacity it provides to stay competitive. Organizations should also consider drafting an AI policy to guide their work.
Fall 2024 Health and Wellness Update from LIG Solutions
GFAS partners with LIG Solutions to provide U.S. based GFAS certified organizations exclusive access to assistance in finding affordable health coverage options. They also provide a quarterly health and wellness update that provides very useful information everyone can benefit from.
If you are a GFAS certified organization and have not been receiving updates regarding what LIG Solutions offers, please contact us at .
Certification and Renewals
Over the past month GFAS has certified two new organizations and renewed seven organizations!
Congratulations to all these groups!
New
Elegius Mini Equine Sanctuary, Virginia
Harmony Farm Sanctuary, Oregon
Renewal
Amazing Grace Equine Sanctuary, Wisconsin
Goodheart Animal Sanctuaries, United Kingdom
Pasado’s Safe Haven, Washington
Rabbit Sanctuary, South Carolina
Rainbow Meadows Equine Rescue and Retirement, Kansas
Serenity Farm Equine Sanctuary, Virginia
Yesahcan Sanctuary, Florida