The big, fun guide to saving cats this summer

Image: Labhlakshmi.com

Each spring and summer across the country, thousands of cats and kittens enter a shelter system that is already overloaded. To avoid having to kill the majority of these animals, there are things shelters can be doing in the months leading up to this busy season.

Here’s a plan that any shelter could use leading up to cat season to manage their shelter’s summer rush;

Right now (2 months out)

Recognise that it doesn’t help to blame your community

Condemning the public for a kitten rush that happens every year is both futile and largely inaccurate. Owned cats are largely desexed and free-roaming cats will breed whether you put hateful pieces of media out or not. Calling it ‘dumping season’ and your public ‘irresponsible’ builds barriers between you and your community (think ‘Barbara’ from the ANZ ads!).

From now on your organisation will demonstrate its commitment to helping save cats and all media and communications should focus, not on attributing blame, but attracting people to interact with your organisation through positive and heartwarming stories.

Get your Facebook group dusted off

Do you have a Facebook group up and running? Now’s the time to start a conversation with your public; you need them to help you through this time.

Your first article is to call for Foster Carers (there’s a sample article here). You’re going to need lots to care for all the mums and bubs you’re expecting. From now on you need to share a story daily with your Facebook fans; something funny that happened in the office. A cat with a particularly cute name. A photo of an adopter just as they leave you smiling happily. Brainstorm potential topics at your next staff meeting and write them down for inspiration.

Get a photographer

Photos like this:

… will not get your cats adopted. You have to get a professional or a good amateur photographer to visit your shelter most days and get photos of your cats that are like this;

Images Best Friends Animal Society

See how they’re focused on the face? You’ll want to get the images of cats eyes and faces to engage potential adopters.

If your photographers are willing, give them access to upload your cats directly to the web, via your own website, Facebook or PetRescue. Give them the basic details for each cat, then have a staff member go in to add any extra information. This removes the double handling of the photographer sending you the images and you having to work it all out.

The more pets you can adopt now through cute pictures and positive profile on the web, the more capacity will be available when the rush starts in earnest.

Have a PetRescue account

While having your own website is important for raising awareness of the work of your organisation, having your individual cats on PetRescue (www.petrescue.com.au) is vital if you need to adopt large numbers of animals.

PetRescue recieves 3.16 million page views from over 200,000 visitors each month. Because of this enormous audience of people actively looking to adopt, your cats are probably more likely to find the right home for them here than your own organisation’s website.

Also, if you use the PetRescue feed to drive your own website, you only have to do one upload and both sites will be up to date.

Call all of your media contacts

Let them know that you’re coming up to your busy season and need their help to save lives. Find out if their interested in doing a pre-rush spread of available cats and let them know that you can provide high-res professional photos.

Avoid doing ‘kitten dumping’ stories, stray cat floods or anything negative. You need to make the story about adoption, the benefits of cat ownership and any promotions you might be doing on adoptions.

Develop a colour pet-of-the-week advert in your local media

Speak to your usual sponsors about a fantastic opportunity to be seen to be helping animals; a colour pet-of-the-week advert in your local paper. Let them have a big brand opportunity in return for you coordinating with the paper a cute pet each week. Always profile your most cute and adoptable pet, even if its likely that pet will already be adopted. You want people to know that your shelter is a great source of healthy, loving animals.

Be sure to have your phones manned by professional, enthusiastic staff who have a list of your available cats on hand when the story runs. Chances are there will be a lapse between when you send through the profile and when the story features, so those cat included may very well already be adopted. And that’s ok! Explain that the featured cat has been incredibly popular and has already found a new family, but that there are several others that can be emailed or discussed over the phone. Easy!

Check your donation procedures

With all this extra exposure, you’re sure to have people wanting to make donations to help cats find new homes. This is an excellent chance to capture their interest in your work.

• For people coming on site with product donations have a ‘thank you’ brochure printed up (a black and white photocopy is fine) thanking the person for their support and wishing them a happy holidays. Outline a little about what your organisation brings to the community and local homeless pets.




• Make sure everyone visiting on site or making donations gets acknowledged by staff, even if it’s just a smile and a wave. Don’t have people drop anything into ‘bins’ – especially actual rubbish bins – what you’re actually saying ‘your donation is rubbish’. Have a rack or box for donations that gets regularly cleared and if you must, have the bins located out of sight of the public.




• Anyone who makes a donation should be invited to leave their details, especially their email address for future mailing. These are your organisations most loyal supporters so you want to know who they are!

Develop a ‘free’ cat adoption program

Free cat adoption has had enormous success overseas in dramatically increased adoptions.

• Johnson County, Kansas adoption fees were waived for cats, and adoptions doubled. The summer promotion was such a hit, they decided to extend the deadline as it successfully gave adopters an extra incentive to take in adult cats — often the last to be adopted at shelters.




• In August in the US The Humane Society of Boulder Valley enjoyed its largest adoption day ever, which was also the first day they ever offered free adoptions for cats and kittens. In a single day, they placed 117 animals.




• By co-oincidence, on the same weekend, New Zealand SPCA, offered a free-feline Friday. The Wellington, Wairarapa, Newtown, Waikanae, Levin and Masterton branches offered cats to the public with a waived fee over the weekend. Their offices were flooded with prospective owners on Friday morning and by Friday afternoon and 150 animals were adopted.




• In June, in the US, 41 shelters and rescue groups got together for the Maddies Matchmaker Adoptathon, offering free pet adoption. They did so with the aim of emptying their shelters. The result? 1,500 pets were rehomed in a single weekend.




• And finally, we have Nevada Humane Society US, who have been using ‘free’ in their adoption mix since 2007 and now rehome more than 1,000 pets a month.

If ‘free’ still makes you feel a bit funny, check out the report ‘Comparison of Attachment Levels of Adopters of Cats: Fee-Based Adoptions Versus Free Adoption’ published the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, that found

• Attachment to cats adopted did not decreased when adoption fees were eliminated,
• That eliminating adoption fees does not devalue the animal, or the rescue group in the eyes of the adopters,
• And that there was no increase in the percentages of animals returned.

The ASPCA are now officially recommending ‘fee waived’ programs as a valid technique for increasing cat adoption (http://www.aspcapro.org/free-adult-cat-adoptions.php). Visit their website to see how other shelters have implemented it, how they’ve recouped costs and got management on side.

Get your in-store program up and running

During kitten season you’re going to want to get as many pet stores as you can on board to help you showcase your animals. Start phoning pet-free stores in your area to find out who would be interested in having kittens in-store over the summer.

A quick and easy program that you could start today would look something like this;

• Purchase a number of ‘caboodle’ enclosures from Cat Max (http://catmax.com.au/caboodles.php). We found the ‘Mini Caboodle’ with cat walk, staircase and pet house provided an attractive, safe, multi-level enclosure. These would be big enough for a few kittens or up to two cohabiting cats.




• Source a team of volunteers (how many depends on how many stores you will be working from).




• You’ll want a morning volunteer and an afternoon volunteer. They will be responsible for;
  – visiting each store to check on animal health at an agreed time each day
  – changing litter trays, checking water and food
  – collecting any adoption applications to be returned to your shelter (alternatively store staff can fax or email them through)




• Store staff should also be responsible for monitoring animal health and cleaning up any spills or poop.




• Adoption applications can be made for the animals, but the shelter can request that they are first approved. The more streamlined this process the better, but initially volunteers can bring back any applications after their visit.

More information on creating an effective in-store adoption program can be provided by PetRescue ([email protected]).

Tell people about it! This is another good story for your media contacts; be sure to let them know there are cute kittens in store should they like to visit and get some great pics!

Don’t forget to also have a donation box or ‘wishing tree’ in their store. As people buy gifts for their own pets, they are generally very supportive of buying something for a homeless animal.

A ‘wishing tree’ (a Christmas tree covered in gift tags featuring a pet’s story and suggestions of the kinds of donations you need) can be located at the front of the store. Or a box placed at the checkout where donations can be left.

Again everyone who donated should be invited to leave their details (have a sign in sheet next to the donation box) and be given a ‘thank you’ sheet from your organisation.

Desexing

Obviously, desexing is vital to reducing the number of cats entering your shelter in the coming months. Speak to your local vets about a three month discount promotion for anyone who wants to desex a cat; get them to agree to a voucher that can be collected from your organisation.

For people who are low income earners, or wanting to desex a feral or semi-owned cat desexing should be free. Ask your sponsors if they would be interested in sponsoring a number of desexing operations (say 20 at 100 each) in return for a logo on your website for six months. Have a page of ‘supporters’ logos thanking them for their donation.

Now, if people have contacted you wanting to know what to do about a feral, offer them free cat desexing in return for them caring for the cat.

December

Arrange to extend your opening hours

People are more likely to visit your shelter if you are open at times when they’re not at work. You need to be open full days on weekends, and arrange at least once weekly ‘twilight’ adoption opportunities, where your shelter stays open until 8pm or later.

Then you need to tell people about it! Opening late doesn’t help if people don’t know that you’re open. Announce your summer opening hours on your Facebook page, in your email signatures, in the local media and ask your supporters to put up posters in your local area (vets, shopping centers, community notice boards).

Invite a local radio station to do a late night broadcast from your cattery. Hold a sausage sizzle. Get a local celebrity cat lover to come on site. Offer adoption promotions. Anything that can encourage people to come visit you.

Hold a ‘free’ adoption event

Now’s the time to run your first adoption event. Use ‘free’ as a point of difference; a hook to get the media interested. Let people know you will still be using your normal screening procedures and that all cats are being adopted desexed and vaccinated.

Pick a day when the shelter can offer extended trading hours and invite families to come in as a group after work to choose a new family member.

When you come to sign off on the adoption, give them all the information they need plus an invoice for all the charges you’ve incurred in getting their cat ready for adoption. Often when people are presented with how much the cat has cost you and asked for a donation they will pay what they can. But don’t worry if they don’t! By showing them you’ve provided them value, they’re also more likely to become donors in the future (so make sure their contact details get into your fundraising systems!)

Holiday adoptions

Image: No Kill Nation

While it wasn’t too long ago that holiday adoptions were considered a sin, but nowadays shelters that shut down adoptions for the holiday are few and far between. The overblown fear that holiday adoptions equal impulse gifts that will be given up soon after the holiday, has been replaced with news stories of holiday adoption promotions, reduced fees to encourage lifesaving, happy pets and support for new adopters.

If people are going to buy a pet we’d should encourage them to come, speak to us and get good advice; instead of walking into a pet store. Our rescue groups have policies and procedures that help people make good decisions. We need to yell from the rooftops; shelters are a great place to get a pet these holidays!

Ask your media contact to help you do a Christmas themed promotion (think cats in reindeer antlers and playing with tinsel) and feature a little holiday cheer in all of your cat adoption photos.

January

Keep your extended hours

While school is out, you’ll want to make it as easy as possible for families to visit. Put out regular calls to your media contacts to ask that they include adoption stories, available pets and cute kitten photos in their publications.

Hold a ‘kitten shower’

Summer is a great time to hold a ‘kitten shower’ featuring some of your newborns (think baby shower but for kittens!). Ask the public to donate things your kittens need or just come on site to hold a baby. A great media release is here:

“Breaking Mews. Animal Friends Hosts a Kitten Shower”

“It’s a boy! It’s a girl! It’s a kitten! Animal Friends is hosting a baby shower with a whole new twist by bringing 30 kittens in from foster homes to help them find forever families.”

The Kitten Shower is your chance to attend a unique “baby shower” where you can meet our adorable new feline arrivals and drop off a shower gift that will help us to provide the litte ones with all that they need for a strong start in life.

The event will be held Sunday, August 5 from noon-3 p.m. at the Ohio Township shelter, officially known as the Caryl Gates Gluck Resource Center. The address is 562 Camp Horne Road.

Animal Friends will be decked out in pinks and blues and there will be shower games. Guests can make treat-filled baby bottles for the kittens to bat around. The homeless kitties even have a gift registry in the Animal Friends retail shop.

Gorgeous! More info on hosting kitten showers here.

Try things. Then try other things

Make adoption promotions the focus of your organisation. Be topical, building around events in your community like movie releases, holidays and sporting events. Some things will work, other things wont; but what’s important is that your focused on getting people in the door and maintaining an air of positivity during this difficult time.

With a bit of creativity now, you can put in place systems and promotions that will help you save the lives of cats and kittens entering your shelter or rescue. Involve everyone in making this time some of your most innovative, successful and fun. Really, what have you got to lose?

What have I forgotten? I just know you have a fantastic adoption/cat promotion idea that I’ve missed off this list. Comment with your ideas :)