Collaboration is at the heart of AAF’s mission to create thriving communities for companion animals in Colorado. By fostering mutual respect, advocating for compassionate practices, and prioritizing collaborative action, we can make a meaningful difference in the lives of Colorado animals and communities. 

Key components to addressing urgent issues impacting Colorado's companion animals: 

• Community Support: The effectiveness of animal shelters directly depends on the level of support they receive from the wider community, including donations, volunteering, and adopters. 

• Leadership & Funding: As a Colorado foundation dedicated to funding companion animal care across our state, AAF serves as a leader and convener in the animal welfare industry to bridge connections between different types of organizations and to initiate novel, research-backed projects to tackle pervasive issues. 

Divisive language is terminology that perpetuates harmful myths and stigmatizes shelters and rescues that work to prevent and alleviate suffering for the animals in their care. This overly rigid approach can lead to unrealistic expectations and undermine efforts to address the root causes of animal overpopulation and homelessness. 

Divisive language, such as the terms "kill/no kill shelters,” or “high-kill,” can have detrimental effects on our mission to support animal welfare: 

1. Harmful to Animals: Divisive language within the animal welfare community negatively impacts the support and resources vital for animal care. For example, when compassionate euthanasia is not an option, animals can suffer and languish in conditions that are not supportive of their well-being.

2. Harmful to Animal Shelters and their Staff: Divisive language creates negative perceptions of shelters and undermines the hard work of animal shelter staff, who are dedicated to the well-being of animals, prioritize animal welfare, and confront tough decisions daily. For example, using divisive language towards shelter employees can demoralize the compassionate and dedicated staff who strive to provide excellent care for shelter animals daily, leading to increased employee turnover.

3. Harmful to Communities: Divisive language fosters mistrust and hampers collaboration among shelters, preventing communities from making progress on the most challenging animal welfare issues. For example, creating a false dichotomy between 'good' and 'bad' shelters can contribute to fewer donations, volunteers, fosters, transfers, and adopters, leading to a lack of resources for pets and pet owners in the community. 

4. Obstructs Progress: Rather than fostering a collaborative environment conducive to innovation within the industry, divisive language shifts focus to arbitrary outcomes and shifting goalposts, hindering the pursuit of tangible solutions. Humane euthanasia is directly correlated with the number of animals that community members bring to shelters. Attempts to lower euthanasia rates should start by supporting communities. For example, "No-kill" has multiple definitions. It can mean no euthanasia at all, euthanasia only for the untreatable, or a rate within the one-to-10% range. This inconsistency causes confusion and division, and animal shelters bear the brunt of this ambiguity. This shifts the focus away from animal care and towards maintaining unclear and ever-shifting benchmarks. 

Successful AAF grantees use positive language about animal care when communicating with the public and media about their activities and colleagues. They avoid using accusatory terms and arbitrary percentages to define others.  

At AAF, we embrace Socially Conscious Sheltering and PACT, which aim to secure optimal outcomes for every homeless cat and dog within our community. Made up of “animal shelters and rescues, policymakers, law enforcement agencies, veterinarians, human-animal resource providers, and caring citizens, Socially Conscious Animal Communities provide access to thoughtful resources and services to improve the welfare of all vulnerable animals.” 

Learn more about the tenets of Socially Conscious Sheltering here. 

We value data's power to drive change and aim to engage potential grantees in streamlined data collection efforts. These programs benefit animal welfare by: 

• Providing clarity on pressing challenges and solutions 

• Enhancing efficiency and resource allocation 

• Supporting factual basis for decisions

• Identifying trends and patterns 

• Improving accuracy and reducing uncertainty 

• Facilitating objective evaluations

• Encouraging transparency and collaboration

We require grantees to be enrolled in and reporting data to Shelter Animals Count or the Equine Welfare Data Collective, if applicable.