This article is out today, but could have just as easily been written a decade ago, and is the epitome of the ‘bad, naughty public’ rescue media release;
Fewer people are able to give a dog a home
More abandoned dogs and cats are going without a home now than at any other time in the past 10 years, creating an “adoption crisis”.
The Animal Welfare League reports that dog adoptions are down 30 per cent and cat adoptions 10 per cent compared with the average of the past decade.
South Australian Animal Welfare League operations general manager Damien Marango said while adoptions were down the number of animals handed over was steady. “Many animals are also taking longer to be housed,” he said.
Mr Marango said research showed financial pressures families were facing was the main reason for the drop.
“Last year, our adoptions started to plummet as we experienced continual interest rates hikes and this year, the outlook is not good,” he said. “Our figures have continued to fall with the introduction of a flood levy (and) discussion of carbon tax.”
He urged all South Australians to consider adopting a pet, such as 10-week-old female staffordshire cross puppy Indigo.
The carbon tax? Really?
What makes this an especially terrible article (apart from like, all of it) is the fact its only purpose of it was to encourage adoptions. The desired outcome was to bring people into the shelter. And they’ve tried to do that with the message;
People are bad! They give up their pets! No one is adopting! There’s financial pressures. We have no choice; it’s hopeless.
It’s a common approach, but not a very effective one.
Imagine for one moment any other business marketing themselves in this way;
You guys suck! You’ve stopped buying cars! We’re going out of business and you’re all to blame! The economy is killing our business. Take pity on us and buy a car?
As discussed here previously, telling people they’re bad, doesn’t get people in the door to adopt. Whinging to people that you’re having a crisis, doesn’t get people in the door to adopt. Complaining about the economy, or global warming, or a lack of some law, doesn’t get people in the door to adopt.
What does get people in the door to adopt, is positive promotion of the individual pets a group has available.
You gotta make people fall in love – not criticise them or berate them, or whine at them. And there is a lot that any group can do to get their pets in front of a really large audience and it costs nothing;
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Pets Haven in Victoria have a Facebook page with nearly 30,000 members. They use this page to promote the animals they have in care, call for donations to individual pets and – most importantly – celebrate when a pet gets adopted!
By creating a community of pet-lovers (rather than just simply ear-bashing them), the group gets thousands of dollars of free ‘advertising’ for their pets and have a community of advocates rooting for, and actively participating in their success.
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One technique The Animal Welfare League in QLD uses is PetRescue.com.au and a fantastic team of volunteer photographers to get astoundingly beautiful photos of their pets in front of an enormous audience.
The pets practically ‘sell’ themselves with such gorgeous pics.
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Whyalla Vet is a South Australian group who takes advantage of the colour ‘Adopt-a-Dog’ adverts which have just started in newspapers nationally every Sunday. Nearly 10,000 visitors a day flock to visit the profiles of the animals featured, flooding groups with potential adopter options.
Being included in these advertisements is free and open to all rescue groups who list on PetRescue.
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Late last year, the RSPCA Victoria ran a weekend ‘adoption fee waived’ cat promotion. In three days, 110 cats found new homes. And they only stopped there, because they ran out of cats.
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Even more lifesaving
A shelter saves a pet in under 2hrs
A shelter saves six dogs in three hours
A pound saves 79 pets in a week
A regional pound saves 97% of the dogs it takes in
A pound in NSW uses ‘Pet of the Week’ adverts and sees great success
Continuing to blame an ‘irresponsible public’ for low adoptions – in the face of overwhelming evidence that people DO want to adopt, they DO want to open their hearts to a rescue pet, that they DO want to help groups – makes no sense. Adoptions must be made an organisational priority, just as important as events and fundraising; and talented and innovative people need to be encouraged to be involved in the process. The only limit is our imaginations.
There is no ‘adoption crisis’. Positive, proactive marketing by compassionate shelters finds pets homes.
I love this article! Marketing know how is needed by both shelters and rescue groups to save more shelter or rescued pets. I hope both groups are taking notes!