Hello folks,

Don't forget the meeting tomorrow at 6:30 PM to discuss development plans & goals for CFA (CMHS Friends for the Animals, the fundraising arm of CMHS).  For more information about the meeting, please contact the Central Missouri Humane Society at (573) 443-3893 or visit their website at http://www.cmhspets.org.  From cmhspets.org:

May 7th - CFA Meeting - Thursday the 7th at 6:30 p.m. at the Boone Co. Electric Cooperative community room (north side of building), 1413 Rangeline St. CMHS board leadership will present an overview of the budget and shelter operations, the board's study on "where our animals come from," and other information designed to arm CFA members with the information that will help us make our case for support to potential donors.

Also, PETA has decided to honor Amanda Huhman and Libby Burks, the two 13-year-old girls who got this whole thing started, with a special award.  You can read their press release at http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=13014.

See you at the CFA meeting tomorrow, and please continue to vote daily on The Animal Rescue Site so CMHS can win another $20,000!

- Dave Muscato
CMHSmakeover.com webmaster
(573) 424-0420 cell / voicemail / text
mail@davemuscato.com

Hey folks!

On May 7 at 6:30 PM, there will be a meeting for CMHS Friends for the Animals ("CFA") to talk about fundraising and development ideas for the shelter.  If you are interested in getting involved with helping to raise money for CMHS, please attend.  Details are on our Events page.

On May 12 at 6:00 PM, CMHS is hosting a town-hall-style meeting to talk about ideas for the shelter makeover project!  If you'd like to be a part of this or find out more information about what CMHS has in mind, please come to the meeting.  Details are on our Events page.

CMHS also has some exciting events coming up, including a fundraiser/BBQ and brand-new car raffle at Joe Machens Ford/Lincoln/Mercury this Saturday.  Raffle tickets are $50 or 3 for $100 (details here).  Bring your dog and enjoy the BBQ—I'll see you there!

- Dave Muscato
CMHSmakeover.com webmaster
(573) 424-0420 cell / voicemail / text
mail@davemuscato.com

Click the link below to listen to the press conference (~14 minutes, streaming audio):

http://www.cmhsmakeover.com/files/CMHS_press_conf_4-27-09.mp3

Photos are available on Flickr here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davemuscato/sets/72157617397888068/

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is soliciting public opinion about new ordinances to help curb Columbia/Boone County's companion animal overpopulation problem.  You can leave a comment on their website.  Here is what I wrote, and I encourage all of you to voice your opinions as well:

I think there should be a fee for owners of intact animals, for example, if someone wants to keep his pet intact to one day breed him. The fee should be high enough to discourage most people from keeping their animals intact, say, $500 or $250 per pet: a Pigovian tax. If someone don't want to pay this fee, s/he must get his animal spayed or neutered, or be fined, and additionally ordered to spay/neuter/pay the $250 fee (with the fine money going to trap-fix-'n-release programs like SNAP). This way, people legitimately interested in breeding their animals have a way around the ordinance, but the general public will be strongly financially motivated to make sure their animals are spayed or neutered. I also think that breeders should be required by law, under a new ordinance, to guarantee that their customers will either pay the $250-or-whatever 'intact fee,' or alternatively, spay/neuter the bred animals, *before* the new owner can take possession. This will help with enforcement. The law should also say that if a breeder is unable to find a buyer for an animal, s/he is still responsible for ensuring that the animal is either spayed/neutered or that the 'intact fee' is paid, say, before the animal is 1 year old (for cats & dogs). By the way, the Central Missouri Humane Society already offers low-cost spaying & neutering surgeries, based on the owners' income.

- Dave Muscato
CMHSmakeover.com webmaster
(573) 424-0420 cell / voicemail / text
mail@davemuscato.com

We did it!!

The official USA Today article announcing our win:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-04-26-zootoo-contest_N.htm

The Central Missouri Humane Society won the $1,000,000 Zootoo.com Shelter Makeover II contest by "a wide margin"—we couldn't have done it without you!

From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely thank each and every one of you for your support. Your hard work will save the lives of thousands of homeless animals right here in Mid-Missouri.

We *just* got the news, so stay tuned to CMHSmakeover.com for updates as more info comes in.

If you haven't already, please join our official mailing list at http://www.CMHSmakeover.com - We will be posting lots of updates on the website, including interviews, photos and video of the press conference tomorrow morning, and photos and video of the shelter makeover itself!

There are a lot of things CMHS has in mind, but right now comes the fun part: celebrating! Please check the website for more info as we get this together. We were not expecting the announcement to come until tomorrow morning, but we will keep you in the loop as info becomes available.

One thing to keep in mind is that although this makeover is a godsend for CMHS, the makeover only applies to the shelter itself: a decrepit, 31-year-old building with drainage, flooding, and ventilation problems, not even counting the overcrowding from 7,500+ animals each year. The new shelter will almost certainly have increased capacity, which means CMHS will be even *more* understaffed: Now more than ever, we need YOUR help as volunteers, and your financial support to hire more staff and for shelter operations expenses, which are independent from the Shelter Makeover contest.

Please, even if you can't give much, help the Central Missouri Humane Society fund its operations expenses in its mission to save homeless animals in Mid-Missouri from euthanasia—every single dollar helps. For more info, please feel free to call me on my cell anytime at 573-424-0420 or the shelter directly at 573-443-3893 during business hours, or email me at mail@davemuscato.com or the shelter at staff@cmhspets.org.

Again, I just want to say how incredible grateful I am to all of you for your hard work in helping us win this contest. You are beautiful, amazing people, and you deserve more appreciation than I can possibly put into words, so I will just leave it at this!

Thank you for everything. We (and the animals!) appreciate it! Please join the mailing list at CMHSmakeover.com so you can see first-hand over the next several months just what your hard work is accomplishing!

- Dave Muscato
CMHS Volunteer / CMHSmakeover.com admin
(573) 424-0420 cell / voicemail / text
mail@davemuscato.com

*** We're just getting started!***
Join the mailing list at:
http://www.CMHSmakeover.com

Hey folks!

The Friday preliminary rankings for the ZooToo Million Dollar Shelter Makeover Contest were posted this morning. These will be the last rankings update before the voting ends (on Sunday at 11 PM, Central time). The winner of the contest will be a surprise beyond this point!

Please continue voting every day and spreading the word! We are ahead, but we have not won yet, and our lead has shrunken considerably!

The Voting Tutorial is here.

Let's show 'em what we're made of!

On Wednesday, we found out that we were ahead of the #2 shelter by 30,000 votes, a 45% margin (68,083 to 38,142 for the #2 shelter in Chico, California).

This is great news, but in this morning's second (& final) rankings update, we found that although we are still in 1st Place (now by 44,500 votes), our margin has closed to only a 33% lead (133,347 to 88,891 votes for CA), with only 3 days to go—voting ends on Sunday at 11 PM Central time.

We have read that the California shelter is also planning to work with politicians in their area to go state-wide with publicity for the contest. If they are successful, they can easily overtake us on straight numbers, just because of the enormous difference in populations in our two states.

It is VITAL that we continue spreading the word and voting, and that we push hard for regional, not just local, exposure. Remember, we are the only shelter in the Finalist (Top 10) voting round from Indiana to Nevada and from North Dakota down to Texas. *Please* get all of your friends and acquaintances, no matter where they are, involved and VOTING for the Central Missouri Humane Society.

A Voting Tutorial is here (please spread it around!):

http://www.CMHSmakeover.com/howtovote.cfm

as well as the mailing-list sign-up.

We need your help, folks! I believe we will win, but only if we FIGHT FOR IT!

-----

The Good News: As far as the (unrelated) Animal Rescue Site contest (for a $20,000 grand prize), I'm THRILLED to report that we have jumped ahead about fifty (!) spots to 26th Place! Please keep up the great work! Voting on this site is unbelievably easy; you do not have to register or make a profile or anything: you pretty much just go to the site and vote for the Central Missouri Humane Society! The Voting Tutorial for this contest is here:

http://www.CMHSmakeover.com/anothercontest.cfm

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We can do this. Spread the word, VOTE every day, and YOU can help save homeless animals from euthanasia and get them into loving homes.

Thank you for your support! Please feel free to call or email me with any questions or ideas about spreading the word.

- Dave Muscato

573-424-0420 cell / voicemail / text
mail@davemuscato.com

Vote every day through Sunday (for the ZooToo.com contest) and through July 26 (for TheAnimalRescueSite.com contest)!

Thanks again!

Hey folks,

As many of you know, ZooToo has chosen not to provide real-time rankings in the voting round, but they did say they will post an update today, and another on Friday.  I'm glad to report that as of this morning, we have 68,083 votes for CMHS, meaning that 6,800 people or more are rooting for CMHS!  Please keep up the excellent work and continue to spread the word:  We are about 30,000 votes ahead of the #2 shelter: almost a 45% margin!  We can do this, guys!

I also want to tell you about another, unrelated grant contest, this one offered by TheAnimalRescueSite.com.  The top prize is a $20,000 grant, and there are also other, lesser prizes for runners-up.  See the Voting Tutorial here.

Keep up the great work, everyone!  No doubt the other shelters are rallying now, so it's very important that we continue to spread the word and continue voting every day.  Thank you for your support!

- Dave Muscato
mail@davemuscato.com
573-424-0420 cell / voicemail / text

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for taking the time to vote yesterday on ZOOTOO.com! We were excited to see how easy they have made this process, really takes all of 2 minutes to do so. If you haven't voted, again instructions are to:

www.zootoo.com/makeover. Click on the ORANGE button that reads "vote in shelter makeover II" from there you will see the Central Missouri Humane Society. You will be able to vote 10 times instantly.

Let me know if you are having problems and Liz or I are happy to help. We will have results on Wed. and will report how we are doing so far. Hopefully we will not have to rally our ground troops to get the vote out. We will be anxiously awaiting the results.

I also have great news to report, Stray Rescue of St. Louis and ZOOTOO have resolved any disagreements over the contest from last year. We fully understand how the money will be dispersed this year and are very excited about the positive things it can bring to our shelter. Richard Thompson will be doing an interview with Tom Bradley on 93.9 The Eagle tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m.

Also, if you animal lovers are looking for something fun to do with your family this weekend. Delta Gamma is hosting Bark in the Park on Saturday, April 18th. I have attached the flyer for this event. Website is: http://www.geocities.com/dgbarkinthepark/

There will be a silent auction, music, games, food, and contests open to all pets from 11am to 3pm.

Clear 99 radio station will be there from 12pm-2pm.

Smokin' Chick's BBQ will be set up selling food.

Bring your dog or come play with dogs brought by the Humane Society.

We will have contests for dogs and games to play for everyone to participate in. The dog contests start at 12pm and are as follows:
-Best Trick contest at 12pm
-Cutest dog contest at 12:30pm
-Dog/Owner Look-a-like Contest at 1pm

T-Shirts of different sizes will be for sale for $10. Come early before they run out.

All proceeds from this event will go to the Central Missouri Humane Society.


There is also another contest that I found out about yesterday, you can go to www.theanimalrescuesite.com and vote once a day until July 26th or click the screen below. As of this morning, The Central Missouri Humane Society was ranked number 62. That's nothing compared to 859th place when we started zootoo.

Thanks for all your support
Liz and Libby Burks
Angie and Amanda Huhman
CMHS Staff

 Hey folks!

I just received word from Angie Huhman that we made the Top 10! Thanks for all your hard work! Now comes the fun part :)

Phase 2 is complete and we are now moving into the 3rd and final Phase: the voting phase. This is it, guys! Whichever shelter receives the most votes wins the Million Dollar Makeover.

So, here's what we need you to do:

1) SPREAD THE WORD. Each person is limited to 10 votes per day for the 7-day voting period (70 votes per person). Please ask all of your professors (past and present) to email all of their students, and also to ask their fellow professors to email *their* students. Please ask your boss, your co-workers, your classmates, your friends, your family, your church, your sports team, everyone you know, and everyone you meet to VOTE for the Central Missouri Humane Society and SPREAD THE WORD themselves.

For more info, please tell everyone to visit either http://www.CMHSpets.org or this site (http://www.CMHSmakeover.com)

2) VOTE! In order to vote, you only have to have two things: a) A free ZooToo profile and b) A profile picture. The profile picture need not be a photo of you, but you MUST have a photo uploaded to be able to vote. If you need help registering for ZooToo.com or getting a profile picture uploaded, please let me know.

The voting phase begins on Monday, April 13th (next Monday) and runs for 7 days to the 19th (the following Sunday). Remember, each registered user who has uploaded a profile picture gets 10 votes each day, so make sure you log in EVERY DAY in order to submit all 70 of your votes to CMHS.

If you have any questions or more ideas for spreading the word, please let me know!

We can do it, guys! Spread the word and VOTE!

- Dave Muscato, CMHS Volunteer
mail@davemuscato.com
573-424-0420 cell / voicemail / text

Thank you for your hard work!!

Our channel is CMHSmakeover and we will be adding more videos soon.  Right now, we just have two from this morning's event.  More updates, including photos and blog entries, are on the way!

Please sign up for our mailing list, if you haven't already!

- Dave Muscato
CMHS Volunteer

573-424-0420 cell / voicemail / text