Shelter’s Edge

- Woo-hoo! Good news for animals in the Big Apple this week, with the New York City Council passing Intro. 328, which will allow the city to raise the license fee for unaltered dogs. The new surcharge will help fund NYC Animal Care and Control’s population control program. Considering the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene estimates that 400,000 NYC dogs are unlicensed, imagine the revenue generated if these owners were in compliance with the law! Does your agency benefit from funds collected from dog licensing? What strategies have you used to increase the community’s compliance with your local laws?

I recently came across these snazzy PSAs launched last year by Anchorage Animal Care and Control:

And here’s the divas-only version:

- Feeling especially compliant now? Then click here and sign up for our free February 2 webinar and discover how 7,362 more lives were saved in just 3 months by 32 shelters across the country.

- So, if you clicked over to this post from our Facebook page, you know that I promised a double-shot of kitteny cuteness. Round one coming up:I make it a point to keep up with what’s going on with our ASPCA Partnership agencies, and my recent visit to Cleveland Animal Protective League’s Facebook page and website turned up these majorly awwww-some photos and videos of a stray momcat “adopting” an orphaned Chihuahua-mix named Bambi. The mother cat’s name is Mrs. Rabbit, which makes the story even better. Knowing that our Facebook fans would eat this right up, I posted the photo on our Wall—and literally 9 minutes later, I see a comment on the post from Cleveland APL’s Executive Director, Sharon Harvey: “UPDATE: Mrs. Rabbit and her kittens, Friend Owl and Thumper, have all been adopted and Bambi’s foster mom is adopting him. Happy endings abound!”  Don’t even get me started on Sharon’s incredible response rate—but take note, EDs—you should be involved and have a presence in your agency’s social media efforts, too! A comment or two on your fanpage or a blog post can go a long way in building trust and respect for your organization.

Another lesson I’ll take home: We’ll continue to post photos like this every week, because…hey, it makes people happy. It sure works for LOLCats Cheezburger Network, which recently received $30 million from investors. Not bad for an organization with a mission to “make the world happy for five minutes a day.” 16.5 million monthly visitors can’t be wrong—it’s OK to like looking at funny pictures of cats!

And without further ado, here’s round two:I spotted this in a recent photo album on The Cat Network’s Facebook page, one of  five images (extra points for smart photo editing—less is so much more!) from their January 16 free spay/neuter day for homeless cats. Thanks to informative captions that encourage comments, this little album manages to thank volunteers, solicit volunteers, show off an amazing program and garner public support in a small amount of real estate.

And the caption for this fuzzy meatball? “Too young to be sterilized at this event!”

Tags: Adoption Marketing, Adoption Programs, Saving Lives, Take Five Friday, Videos

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