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MMPC Learniverse – The 4 Rights - The Right Care Course
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Offering the "Right Care" means animals are not left in dangerous circumstances to cause harm, suffer, or die because the shelter can’t admit them; nor are they admitted to a crowded shelter. In this course, we’re going to talk about matching community need to community capacity and shelter capacity and services to ensure that all animals receive the care that is right for them while prioritizing Right Care and wellness for our staff too.
You’ll learn principles of humane housing for dogs and cats as well as strategies for strengthening staff well-being and maximizing your capacity to care for animals, with the goal of ensuring animals and people at your shelter can thrive.
As part of the Maddie's®️ Million Pet Challenge's Learniverse program, subject matter experts from the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program will discuss guiding principles that animal welfare professionals can use to make decisions, train their staff and engage the public.
Keywords: Four, 4 Rights, Right Care, 5 Freedoms, 5 Domains, Humane Housing, Capacity for Care.
PLEASE CONTACT: learniverse@sheltermedportal.com if you have any questions or concerns about this course.
This short, self-paced course has been approved for 2.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by National Animal Care and Control Association.
This course has been approved for 2 hours of continuing education credit until August 26, 2026 in jurisdictions that recognize RACE approval. Upon completing the course and passing the quiz, upload your certificate to https://CEBoker.com. This is the broker used by the AAVSB to track your continuing education credits.
With the Maddie’s®️ Million Pet Challenge, the Five Key Initiatives of the Million Cat Challenge have expanded to include other species at risk in shelters and evolved into the Four Rights.
Within the Four Rights, every element works in concert to support one another: animals and people are treated as individuals, empowering shelter staff to make the best decisions for everyone; community safety net services are in place and flourishing; and humane care within the shelter is provided, with appropriate outcomes for the animals that do come in, allowing shelters to deliver the Right Care, in the Right Place, at the Right Time, and to the Right Outcome.
Learn more about Maddie's®️ Million Pet Challenge Learniverse. #ThankstoMaddie
You can also join the discussion about these concepts over on Maddie's Pet Forum in the 4 Rights Discussion Group.
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Key:
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We have a dedicated discussion group on Maddie's Pet Forum to discuss the 4 Rights of Animal Sheltering. Bring your questions, comments, thoughts, and suggestions, or just see what others are thinking about these ideas.
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Mehnaz (Chumkee) Aziz, DVM,
Outreach Veterinarian
Koret Shelter Medicine Program, UC Davis
Chumkee obtained her DVM degree at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012. She then completed an internship at the ASPCA’s Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in NYC in 2013, which included experience in anti-cruelty work and shelter medicine. Chumkee was a resident at the KSMP from 2013-2016. She headed the Northern Tier Shelter Initiative and served as Senior Director of Shelter Medicine Services at the ASPCA before returning to the KSMP in January, 2022 as an outreach veterinarian.Her current interests include the role of community collaboration in mitigating pet homelessness, proactive shelter population management, and infectious disease prevention in shelters.
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Denae Wagner, DVM, MPVM
Veterinarian
Koret Shelter Medicine Program, UC Davis
In her work for the Koret Shelter Medicine Program, Dr. Wagner has helped shelters from Florida to Vancouver. Her contributions have ranged from Capacity for Care (C4C) calculations and population health to full facility design consultations.After initially fashioning them by hand, Dr. Wagner oversaw the design and manufacture of the Kat Portal for the Koret Shelter Medicine Program. Over 5,000 of her hand-made and manufactured portals have been installed in animal shelters throughout North America and beyond, earning Dr. Wagner the nickname, The Portal Queen. The portals safely and cleanly couple pairs of existing cat cages, transforming cramped housing into roomier double-compartment condos.Dr. Wagner’s current interests include evidence based shelter design and the effects of housing and the shelter environment on animal health and well-being.
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Cynthia Karsten, DVM
Outreach Veterinarian
Koret Shelter Medicine Program, UC Davis
Dr. Karsten became board certified in Shelter Medicine Practice in November, 2017. Her main areas of interest include teaching and mentoring undergraduate and veterinary students, working with shelter leaders on change management, and providing accessible, affordable veterinary care to everyone who seeks it.
Throughout her KSMP career, Dr. Karsten has helped to identify and implement best practice protocols and capacity for care models at shelters across the United States and Canada.
She also continues to work to understand her role and that of animal shelters in increasing awareness of social justice issues and implementing policies to bring about equity.
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Kate Hurley, DVM, MPVM
Director
Koret Shelter Medicine Program, UC Davis
Dr. Hurley is the founding director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program and co-founder of the Million Cat Challenge, a shelter-based initiative to save the lives of one million more cats in five years. Over 1,500 shelters more than tripled that goal, between them saving over three million cats against their own baseline before joining the challenge. Hurley’s research interests include welfare of confined dogs and cats, humane and effective strategies to manage community cats, and infectious disease prevention. She will always love shelter work because it has the potential to improve the lives of so many animals and the people who work so hard to care for them.
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Cynthia Delany, DVM, KPA-CTP, FFCP
Director of Online Learning Maddie's Million Pet Challenge
Koret Shelter Medicine Program, UC Davis
With an undergraduate degree in Business/Economics from UCLA and a DVM from UC Davis, Dr. Cindi Delany became the first ever Shelter Veterinarian at Sacramento County Animal Care and Regulation in California under the newly created UC Davis Shelter Medicine Program in 2001.Dr. Delany’s focus in KSMP animal shelter consultations and industry speaking is on programs targeted to improve animal outcomes, provide environmental enrichment for shelter animals, explore shelter animal behavior and training, improve shelter data collection and analysis, and maximize operational efficiencies in a limited resource environment. She currently serves as the Master of the Learniverse, the online learning platform for Maddie's Million Pet Challenge.