INCREASING ADOPTION RATES AT ANIMAL SHELTERS

Elizabeth Crowe

HON 113

Dog With a Blog

AGENDA

What’s been done at the Smithtown Animal Shelter It’s current limitations Current Use Case What Dog with a Blog Does Our Use Case Why Does it matter and what difference will

it make? Cost of implementation, time for

implementation and potential risks How we’ll measure for success

WHAT’S BEEN DONE AT THE SMITHTOWN ANIMAL SHELTER:

Pictures of animals from the shelter are posted to Petfinder

The pictures are aesthetically pleasing and make the animals look friendly.

Some animals are given a short description of their personality within the picture

Stressed Stony Brook University Students will be going to the shelter to interact with the animals

CURRENT LIMITATIONS

The semi pro photography make the animals look very friendly and happy

Stressed out Stony Brook students enjoy interacting with the dogs and the dogs gain social skills

Pictures of the Dogs are posted to a third party server

Those looking to adopt only get a generic description of the dogs

Current formatting for more personal description looks cluttered

Limited opportunity for growth

Strengths Weaknesses

CURRENT USE CASEPerson wants a dog•SBU Student is Stressed

Hopefully does some research•SBU Student reaches out to SBU community

Goes Online to Petfinder to adopt a dog•Goes to Visit Smithtown animal Shelter

Sees Image of dog•SBU student plays with Farrah

Notices “Pit Bull” and decides not to adopt the dog•Learns that Farrah loves to play fetch and gets along well with all other dogs

Either looks for another dog to adopt or seeks a breeder/ pet shop•Student gets an email from the dog asking the student to come back soon

Dog is overlooked for adoption, animal shelter remains overcrowded•Student may or may not remember to come back

WHAT DOG WITH A BLOG DOES students could post on the

shelter's site things about the dogs they interacted with, including the dog's playfulness or quirks.  

Hopefully, by having other people see these dog blogs, potential adopters will be more inclined to adopt a dog because they have easy access to an aesthetically pleasing picture of the dog and a day by day vignette of his or her personality. 

DOG WITH A BLOG USE CASEPerson Wants a Dog•SBU student is stressed

Person Hopefully Does Some Research•SBU student hears from friend about Dog With a Blog

Goes online to the Smithtown Animal Shelter to Adopt a dog•Student goes with friend to meet the dogs

Sees image of a friendly dog with a vignette of the dog’s personality•Student plays with Farrah and sees that she’s really great with other dogs

Person sees that Farrah would be compatible with his/her dog, Chip•Student posts on the dog’s blog that she really loves to play fetch with the other dogs

Decides to visit Farrah at the animal Shelter•Student remembers to come back because they posted the blog

Person adopts Farrah•Student feels good about helping Farrah get adopted, and can’t wait to play with Luke next time.

WHY DOES IT MATTER AND WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL IT MAKE?

 Animal shelters are overburdened “About 2.7 million healthy, adoptable cats

and dogs—about one every 11 seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year. Often these animals are the offspring of cherished family pets” (Humane Society, 2013).

puppy mills pop out dogs at an abhorrent rate. “There are an estimated 15,000 puppy mills

in the U.S. alone. In these mass-production factories, dogs are forced to produce litter after litter of puppies, supplying nearly 100 percent of the dogs sold in pet stores and directly to consumers online and through newspaper ads” (Animal Rescue Corp)  

By increasing awareness of good dogs for adoption, more people may choose to adopt rather than support the puppy mill industry.

The Shelter will SAVE MONEY by increasing adoption rates.

TIME, COST, AND POTENTIAL RISKS Once the SBU program for stressed

students gets going, it should only take a few weeks to add the posting component to the site.  

The only cost will be that of adding a tech person to the site for this function, which still may be $0 if the shelter has a student volunteer his/ her time. 

The biggest risk is having students post damaging comments about the shelter or the dogs, but if the student is participating in the program, this risk is low.  

Student emotional attachment to the dog.

HOW TO MEASURE FOR SUCCESS

Randomly Assign half the dogs to the Blog condition and the other half to the non-blog condition.

Measure the adoption rates of each group If there is a

statistically significant result, then it was a

success

SUMMARY What Dog with a Blog is: an addition to a pre-existing program that aims to further increase adoption rates and provide SBU students with a fun activity that will increase community involvement and decrease stress. Strengths of current program: friendly pictures of the dogs,

working with the University to have stressed students visit the dogs.

Weaknesses of current program: third party server makes it more difficult for users to navigate through the site descriptions tend to be cluttered if even available

What Dog with a Blog does: students post “dog blogs” that describe the dogs’ behavior over time directly on the Smithtown Shelter’s site.

Why it matters: may help decrease the overpopulation of dogs in animal shelters.

Cost: little to nothing check for success: traditional research methods

ANY QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

REFERENCES

The Humane Society of The United States. "Pet Overpopulation : The Humane Society of the United States." RSS. The Humane Society of The United States, 2013. Web. 05 Oct. 2013.

www.petfinder.com http://

www.smithtownny.gov/index.aspx?nid=475 Animal Rescue Corps. "Puppy Mills | Animal Rescue

Corps." Animal Rescue Corps. ARC, 2013. Web. 05 Oct. 2013.