Mission and History - Briggs Animal Adoption Center

7The BAAC has and maintains a daily humane holding capacity of an approximate 205 animals(80 dogs and 125 cats). Since becoming operational in October 2000, the BAAC, in conjunctionwith the former NHES Comprehensive Adoption Services Program, has placed thousands ofcompanion dogs and cats in loving lifelong homes. During fiscal year 2008, the BAAC’sactivities and accomplishments included:• Welcoming a record-breaking number of visitors—8,055 to be exact—and striving toeducate each of them about the responsibilities of adopting a companion dog or cat, andthe absolute need to spay and neuter one’s companion animals, as well as the role thateach of us can play in creating a more humane world.• Achieving a 46-percent increase in dog adoptions and a 44-percent increase in catadoptions from Fiscal Year 2007.• Continuing to maintain very low returnrates for adopted dogs and cats: a 5-percent return rate for dogs (meaning, only5 out of every 100 adopted dogs werereturned) and a 4-percent return rate forcats (meaning, only 4 out of every 100adopted cats were returned).• Continuing to serve as a donor site for theEastern Veterinary Blood Bank (EVBB),which offers the humane alternative of “humanely” collecting blood from donors who arebeloved pets, as opposed to the normative practices of large veterinary blood banks thatcollect blood from a confined colony of canine donors—dogs who reside in a housingfacility and donate blood every month. (To learn more about the EVBB and theirlifesaving work, please visit them on their website at www.evbb.com.)• Welcoming Vietnam and Iraq War Veterans from the VA Hospital, who joined ourvolunteer program to help socialize and rehabilitate the cats and dogs in our care.• Assisting the NHES Humane Education & Advocacy Program by providing animalhandlingdemonstrations in conjunction with educational presentations to a wide varietyof children’s groups.• Continuing to be recognized for our contribution tothe “public good” by providing lifetime veterinarymedical care and food to Loudoun County FireMarshal’s Officer Jimmy, a female Canine AccelerantDetection Dog, who with her partner, InvestigatorBud Herndon, are one of only 82 Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive detection teams inthe United States.