The Business of Animal Shelters

My wife and I took a trip recently to a local animal shelter. We're both animal lovers and the facility we visited was probably the nicest we had ever seen. There was a research center, a gift shop, a hospital, and also a shelter housing the dogs and cats. It was pretty elaborate and, as I walked through the place, I couldn't help but think that I was in a retail store.

1. The in store advertising: Each cat and dog in the entire shelter had an ID card posted on the wall that corresponded to the name on its collar. The ID card had the animal's name, picture, and even some quirky comments on the animal. It was ADVERTISING the animal. Also flooding the walls of the hallway were signs about spaying/neutering and statistics about homeless animals. There was even a gigantic artificial tree about thirty feet tall that had platforms for cats on the branches--an elaborate display for the shelter's products. The entire shelter was designed to 'sell' its cats and dogs to visitors.
2. The supply chain: When I say 'retail store,' I'm not accusing the animal shelter of being a 'Pet Store' that breeds animals for sale or anything like that. I mean that the business operations of the animal shelter were like what we see shopping in retail stores. After all, the animal shelter doesn't breed animals but it does have a wholesaler--stray dogs and cats. An animal shelter is sort of like a Goodwill--its wholesaler is the unwanted products of some that it tries to sell to others.
3. FIFO: One woman working in the shelter tried to steer us toward the older cats instead of the kittens. Obviously, the older cats were harder to adopt-out because their expiration dates were coming up sooner. Ever grab a gallon of milk from the back row because the expiration date was a week later than the gallon in the front row? Okay, so maybe the analogy doesn't fit exactly. Kittens are just cuter and that's why they are in demand. But shelters still push a 'First In, First Out' mentality in regards to the ages of its animals.
4. Inventory turnover: Retailers want to minimize the time that their products are just sitting on the shelves. The more frequently an item sells and is replaced, the better the retailer is doing at its business. The same applies to the animal shelter my wife and I visited. The shelter's goal was to 'turn over its inventory.' Having a constant stream of inventory 'on order,' pressure is high for the shelter to crank out its animals. That's what keeps such a business alive--being able to adopt out at least as many animals as it is taking in.

I want to say also that I mean none of this in a derrogatory sense. I am a firm believer in business and see nothing sneaky or unethical about it. I wish merely to point out that even Non-Profits follow basic business principles in regards to production, distribution, and advertising of its offerings. True, the end-goals may be different but the proceses required to attain those goals are the same.