OkcPets Magazine January 2022

January/February 2022 • OKC Pets 9 increasing the live-release rate of shelter cats and dogs to 90 percent by 2025. Ev- erything that we do is really tied back to that overarching goal. But we have some big challenges to get there, for sure,” said Kelly Burley, director of Common Bonds. Common Goal, Common Ground Common Goals’ partners have a three- pronged approach to meeting the 90 percent goal. The first is to develop relationships with shelters managers and communities. “We are trying to build grassroots relationships with the animal shelters, not only with people that are running them, but their counterparts who make decisions about those shelters,” said Burley. “We’re actively trying to connect the shelters together. I don’t know of any other state that is really doing anything quite like this in terms of being on the ground trying to bring these people together.” Common Bonds also encourages shel- ters to report their intake and release data to the Shelter Animals Count national da- tabase because the count helps to create an effective infrastructure for understanding A shelter kitten looks for a hopeful future. Common Bonds, sponsored by the Kirkpatrick Foundation, works to increase the number of live releases from Oklahoma animal shelters by 2025. Ashley Villines, executive director of the Northern Oklahoma Humane Society in Ponca City, accepts the Common Bonds Certified Communities plaque from Common Bonds Director Kelly Burley at Lake Ponca Park on September 18, 2021. Photograph courtesy of Common Bonds.