As an attorney focusing on appellate law, you could say that Ryan Clinton knows a thing or two about taking in stray cases; over time, he’s learned that, with proper care, no case is hopeless. 

Outside his Austin law offices at Hankinson Levinger, Clinton enjoys equally high esteem for his passionate work to improve conditions for stray animals in our nation’s animal shelters, and he has become a national voice in the cause of saving homeless pets. In a speech last month at the 2010 No-Kill Conference in Washington, D.C., Clinton delivered a detailed description of efforts by FixAustin.org to improve conditions and practices at the city of Austin’s animal shelter.

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle: Clinton and other Austin animal lovers banded together as FixAustin.org and vowed to change things for the city's animals. At first, they had no luck. "No one wanted to even talk about improving things," he said. Not only were the head of animal control and even the large private animal organizations hostile, but "the City Council wasn't interested; it was like talking to a brick wall."

This is the point when a lot of animal lovers give up. After all, if the local government doesn't care, and the animal welfare groups don't care, and the shelter director doesn't care, what can you do?

But Clinton and other members of the FixAustin.org nonprofit went to battle. The result, so far, has been a reduction in shelter animals killed in Austin from about 50 percent to about 29 percent. The goal is to save the lives of at least 90 percent of the city’s shelter animals.

Last December, Clinton received the Henry Bergh Leadership Award, which salutes individuals for their animal-welfare efforts. (Clinton was one of five recipients of that award in 2009.) As a result of Clinton’s work, members of Austin City Council voted unanimously to direct the city manager to formulate a plan for Austin to implement no-kill policies and procedures.

While Clinton’s advice was definitely pertinent to animal lovers, it was extremely applicable to anyone who would like to work within the system (READ: an uncooperative bureaucracy) to improve a community’s quality of life, including:

• Don’t only criticize your local government, politicians or bureaucrats, but offer specific alternatives and solutions to current, flawed policies.
• Find those solutions by researching communities that have successfully met similar challenges with solutions elsewhere.
• Analyze the power structure in government to determine who can best affect change from the inside.
• It’s more important to look well-funded, well-organized and professional than to be all those things. Those elements are important in projecting power to those in power.
• Above all things, don’t give up. Bureaucracies often count on individuals eventually shrugging their shoulders and walking away. When those in government learn that you’re going to stick around, they’ll act.