unparalleled education at Humane Canada's summit for animalS

This track is sponsored by the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA



Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t the future - it’s already transforming how organizations that care for animals operate, make decisions, and create impact. In this full-day session, participants will explore how to utilize AI tools to streamline operations, enhance fundraising, and make data-driven decisions, all while keeping ethics, equity, and sustainability at the forefront with no tech background required.

Through practical examples, including AI-driven approaches to enhancing donor engagement, attendees will learn to identify repetitive tasks, automate processes, and amplify outcomes through small, strategic wins. The session also addresses responsible leadership in the AI era: building animal-inclusive frameworks, applying an EDI lens, and minimizing environmental impact. Participants will leave with actionable strategies to adopt AI confidently, responsibly, and effectively.

High-quality care and a deep understanding of animal behaviour are essential to the welfare of animals in shelters, sanctuaries, and community programs. This educational track is grounded in evidence-based practices designed to improve both the physical and emotional well-being of animals, reduce stress, and support positive outcomes in a variety of care settings.

Participants will explore practical, research-informed approaches to enrichment, handling, housing, behaviour considerations, and training - integrating the latest advances in animal behaviour and welfare science. Whether you work directly with animals or develop programs and protocols, this track offers actionable strategies to elevate care standards and promote compassionate, humane treatment for every animal.

Animal Care and Behaviour Track Learning Objectives:

• Apply Evidence-Based Practices to Enhance Animal Welfare. Understand and implement science-backed strategies that support the physical and emotional well-being of animals in shelters, sanctuaries, and community programs.
   
• Integrate Practical Tools for Behavioural Health. Gain hands-on knowledge of enrichment, handling, housing, behaviour assessments, and training techniques that reduce stress and promote positive outcomes for animals.
   
• Translate Research into Compassionate, Effective Care. Bridge the gap between the latest findings in animal behaviour and welfare science and their practical application in daily care and program development.

For animal welfare organizations, strong communications, savvy public relations and effective fund development strategies are essential to building public trust, driving support, and sustaining lifesaving work. This educational track is designed specifically for nonprofits looking to grow their resources and foster increased connections with their community.

Learn how to craft compelling stories, build relationships, align your brand to your mission, and mobilize supporters through campaigns that inspire action. Whether you're a one-person team or part of a larger organization, this track will provide practical tools, creative ideas, and proven strategies to help you raise awareness - and the funds - to strengthen your organization’s impact.

Communications, PR and Fund Development Track Learning Objectives:

• Identify strategies to expand and diversify your existing funding streams.
   
• Explore how to create strong systems that support sustainable and long-term funding.
   
• Learn how to apply your communications and public relations strategies to build a stronger community around your organization

Community impact programs are transforming animal welfare by meeting people and their animal companions where they are - before shelter intake becomes necessary. This educational track highlights innovative approaches that support companion animal guardians and keep animals safely in their homes. From pet retention programs to community partnerships and crisis support initiatives, these programs address systematic barriers and offer evidence-based methods to reduce shelter pressure while strengthening the human-animal bond.

Join this track to explore real-world examples and practical strategies that center equity, access, and compassion, alongside data and evaluation, empowering organizations to better serve both animals and the people who care for them.
 

Community Impact Track Learning Objectives:

• Identify effective non-veterinary strategies that prevent shelter intake by addressing the root causes of animal surrenders.
   
• Understand how to build and sustain community partnerships with housing providers, Indigenous leadership, harm reduction and mental health services to strengthen outcomes for both people and animals.
   
• Gain practical tools and approaches for launching or enhancing community-focused programs, including staffing, training, data and evaluation, and cross-sector collaboration.
   

This track invites participants to explore ideas, research, and strategies that support the advancement of farmed animal welfare reforming standards, promoting sustainable and humane practices, and highlighting both Canadian and global perspectives, including corporate and animal advocacy community-led efforts driving change.

Created as a space for practical insights and collaborative dialogue, the track welcomes advocates, researchers, policymakers, and those working across food systems to share and exchange knowledge. Whether through case studies, policy discussions, or cross-sector initiatives, the aim is to inspire critical thinking and coordinated action toward a more compassionate and sustainable future for farmed animals.

Farmed Animal Welfare Track Learning Objectives:

• Understand current challenges and opportunities in farmed animal welfare from Canadian and global perspectives.
   
• Explore evidence-based strategies and practical approaches to promote humane, sustainable farming practices.
   
• Engage farmed animal welfare scientists, advocates, policymakers, and food system stakeholders in collaborative dialogue to advance reform and collective action.

PRE-CONFERENCE DEEP DIVES (April 19)

For those looking to explore humane education in greater depth, join us for the half-day pre-conference deep dive to take a closer look at key challenges, case studies, and advanced strategies that build on the core conference content.

Humane education plays a vital role in advancing one health/one welfare by fostering empathy, responsibility, and compassionate action toward all living things. This educational track focuses on programs and strategies that educate learners about the interconnectedness of our relationships with living things, the importance of empathy and respect, and the role we all play in creating a more compassionate world.
    
Explore how humane education is being used to shift attitudes, prevent cruelty and abuse, and build lifelong advocacy. From school-based initiatives to community outreach and interactive learning tools, this track offers practical insights for designing and delivering impactful education that inspires meaningful and sustainable change for a better world.

Pre-conference Deep Dives Humane Education Track Learning Objectives:

• Understand how to address the challenges facing humane education programs using innovative strategies.
   
• Develop creative strategies for starting or expanding a humane education program. 
   
• Explore case studies and inventive programs utilizing humane education across sectors and contexts.

SUMMIT (April 20)

Humane education plays a vital role in advancing One Health/One Welfare by fostering empathy, responsibility, and compassionate action toward all living things. This educational track focuses on programs and strategies that educate youth learners about the interconnectedness of our relationships with living things, the importance of empathy and respect, and the role we all play in creating a more compassionate world.

Explore how humane education is being used to shift attitudes, prevent cruelty and abuse, and build lifelong advocacy. From school-based initiatives to community outreach and interactive learning tools, this track offers practical insights for designing and delivering impactful education that inspires meaningful and sustainable change for a better world.

Humane Education Track Learning Objectives:

• Understand the concept and importance of humane education.
   
• Develop practical strategies for implementing a humane education program.
   
• Explore the application of compassionate action across sectors and contexts.

Animal welfare challenges and solutions take many forms around the world, and we have much to learn from one another. In this educational track, guest speakers from across the globe will share the programs, policies, and innovations shaping animal welfare in their regions.

From grassroots initiatives to national strategies, you'll gain fresh insight into how different countries are advancing animal welfare, often in the face of limited resources or unique cultural, environmental, and legislative contexts. This track invites attendees to think globally, connect across borders, and leave inspired by the diversity of approaches improving the lives of animals worldwide.

International Voices Track Learning Objectives:

• Hear different perspectives and approaches to improving animal welfare in other cultural setups.
   
• Think globally, act locally - Takeaways that can be tailored or improved in your own organizations and communities while addressing animal welfare issues.
   
• Understand the interconnectedness between human health, animal health and the environment.

Join us for an immersive learning experience dedicated to strengthening the role of animal welfare in emergency preparedness and response frameworks. This event will empower attendees with the knowledge and skills needed to support a unified and integrated national response network. Participants will explore strategies for improving the readiness and capabilities of Humane Societies, SPCAs, and animal welfare agencies while advocating for the inclusion of animals in disaster planning at every level of government.

Through interactive sessions and expert-led discussions, learn how to enhance resources for animal responders and ensure animals receive the care they deserve during times of crisis. Take this opportunity to deepen your impact in protecting lives—both human and animal—in the face of unexpected challenges.
 

Preparing for Emergency Response Track Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to incorporate animal welfare into emergency response frameworks to enhance disaster preparedness.
   
• Understand the critical role of humane societies and SPCAs in increasing readiness and resources during crises.
   
• Gain the tools to advocate for including animals in disaster planning at all levels of government for stronger, unified responses.

Caring for animals is profoundly meaningful work, but it also comes with emotional and psychological hazards. This educational track is dedicated to supporting the mental well-being of animal welfare professionals and volunteers who navigate fatigue, burnout, and the daily pressures of this demanding field.
 
Through expert-led sessions, personal stories, and practical strategies, you’ll explore ways to cultivate a supportive and inclusive culture and foster a psychologically safe and healthy workplace. 

Join this track to gain tools that not only sustain your passion for animal welfare but also promote long-term psychological health, connection, and fulfillment in both your professional and personal life.

Psychological Health and Safety Track Learning Objectives:

• Common psychosocial hazards that may impact employee mental health (e.g., workload, harassment, lack of role clarity) and how to address them by implementing a Psychological Health and Safety Management System.
   
• The legal and ethical responsibilities of employers regarding psychological health and safety.
   
• Strategies for managing stress and building resilience, both at work and at home.

This educational track is co-sponsored by the Canadian Animal Shelter and Community Medicine Association (CASCMA).

RACE Approval Pending

PRE-CONFERENCE DEEP DIVES (April 19)
As shelters continue to navigate through rising veterinary costs and staffing shortages, their role as the first line of support for animals awaiting adoption has never been more vital. But what if we could prevent some of these animals from ever needing to enter the shelter system in the first place? 

Join us for a series of deep dive sessions exploring access to care. We’ll examine how shelter teams, shelter veterinarians, and local veterinarians can help animals before they enter the shelter, while they’re under shelter care, and after they’ve been adopted. 

Shelter and Community Medicine Track Pre-Conference Learning objectives:
•    Identify current barriers that pet guardians face in accessing veterinary care for their pets.
•    Explore how shelters are expanding their role by offering services such as wellness and spay/neuter clinics to strengthen the human-animal bond and prevent pet surrender.
•    Learn how private veterinary practices can contribute to access to care solutions in a financially sustainable way.

SUMMIT (April 20 and 21)
As shelters navigate through rising veterinary costs and staffing shortages, their role as the first line of support for animals awaiting adoption has never been more vital. This educational track focuses on advancing the well-being and welfare of shelter animals through innovative approaches to preventive care, thoughtful medical case management, in-house procedures, enhanced capacity for care, and shelter medicine prevention.

Join us to explore real-world strategies and forward-thinking programs that help shelters meet the complex medical needs of animals in their care while paving the way for healthier, happier outcomes for shelter animals.

Shelter and Community Medicine Track Learning Objectives:
•    Recognize common diseases in shelter animals and learn how to treat them using available resources.
•    Understand a shelter’s role in increasing access to care by offering public-facing and community services such as telemedicine, wellness and spay/neuter clinics, community cat management (TNVR) and others.
•    Explore veterinary solutions and fear-free strategies, such as the use of psychopharmacology, to address behavioural challenges in shelter animals.

As cities and human activities rapidly increase, the critical need for evidence-based solutions that foster a co-flourishing culture —a mutual thriving of people and wild animals in shared spaces —is urgent. This educational track explores innovative strategies for coexisting with wildlife in urban and suburban environments, addressing issues such as risk reduction, habitat protection, public education, and policy development.

Through case studies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and expert insights, attendees will gain practical tools and a deeper understanding of our connection to and impact on wild animals living in and around our communities. Join this track to be part of the conversation shaping the future of urban wildlife welfare in Canada and beyond.

Urban Wildlife Track Learning Objectives:

• Apply humane, practical and science-informed practices for preventing and responding to common urban wildlife issues. Participants will learn best practices for addressing common scenarios such as bird window strikes, wildlife-proofing, and "invasive" pet abandonment, with an emphasis on ethical deterrents, practical solutions, and case studies.
   
• Strengthen animal welfare outcomes by understanding the impacts of domestic pets on wildlife. Through the latest research, attendees will explore the intersection of roaming pets, native wildlife, and urban sprawl and gain tools to advocate for policies and public education that reduce mutual harms.
   
• Foster cross-sector collaboration and reframe public narratives to inform future decision-making and prevent avoidable harms. Participants will explore how language, messaging, misinformation and inter-agency cooperation shape public perception and directly impact the outcomes for pets and urban wildlife. 
   

Volunteers are at the core of many animal welfare organizations, supporting everything from daily animal care to events, fostering, fundraising, and advocacy. This educational track is designed for those who recruit, train, and lead volunteers in dynamic and often resource-limited environments.

Learn how to build inclusive, engaged, and sustainable volunteer programs through effective communication, clear expectations, recognition strategies, and meaningful roles. Whether you're developing a new volunteer program or refining an existing one, this track will offer practical tools and fresh perspectives to help you strengthen your volunteer community and maximize its impact on animal welfare.

Volunteer Management and EngagementTrack Learning Objectives:

• Identify and implement strategies to recruit, train, and retain volunteers in a way that fosters engagement, inclusivity, and long-term commitment.
   
• Develop effective communication practices and role design to ensure volunteers understand expectations, feel valued, and contribute meaningfully to organizational goals.
   
• Apply recognition and feedback tools to build a sustainable volunteer culture that supports both individual growth and broader animal welfare impact.