Well, all the original senior pets from Metro have been adopted, and SHAID only has a couple of its senior kitties left.... who by the way still qualify for SHAID's ongoing Senior to Senior adoption incentive.
Out of the original fourteen longtime residents that SHAID started with in December, only five are still available. With that kind of success, SHAID has extended their Home for the Holidays program for another week until the 17th of Jan.
Why do adoption incentives work? Is it because the fees are lowered? Or is it that the incentives get attention for all of the pets in the shelter or group? Right now SHAID has three pages of Happy Tails on its Petfinder site. When they started the promotion, there was one page of Happy Tails.
To put that in plain english.... each petfinder page has room for 25 listings. So if there were at least fifty adoptions in that time period and roughly ten good pets were part of either promotion .... then its plain to see that for every pet that qualified for a special fee, four more were adopted out in that time frame.
I'm just a middle aged grandmother, but from where I stand, that looks pretty darned good to me. I think its fairly safe to say that promotions are good for all the pets at the shelter or group. Why they work is they catch attention.
In the course of my research, I've seen some pretty innovative programs around North America:
- 'buddy programs" or two for the price of one adoption fee for kitties. What I really like about that if one already has pets, the 'new kids' will be bringing their own 'friend' with them .... anyone who has shared space with a cat can tell you how very particular they can be about choosing their friends : )))
- Free bag of food ..... right now there is a very cool version of that at the Yarmouth SPCA who are once again a Pedigree Partner shelter. Their adoptables go home with a really good bag of treats and coupons.
- Free leash for the first twenty five adopted in the week/month
- Free 'how to decide what pet is best for you' workshop for potential adopters
- Lowered or dropped fees ( but not screening) for kitties during the 'dump season'
- Giving a special focus for a month, such as adopt a senior pet month in november
- Senior to senior pet adoption incentives
- Free "I was adopted from ...." scarf for adoptable dogs or its alternative...."I adopted my best friend from ...." bumper stickers with adoption
- and one of my favourites.... a January campaign by one group to adopt out its chubbier pets : ))))
Adoption incentives are not at all the same thing as putting the adoptables 'on sale" Rather they are:
- attention getting devices to spark more public interest in adoption,
- a way of undercutting the competition "the free to a good home"
- good population control, because every spayed or neutered pet from rescue is one less that will create more homeless pets in the future
- a great way to broaden the base of appeal for animal rescue volunteers and donations ... every adopter has the potential to become 'part of the family' in the future and of course
- there is a ripple effect with every positive adoption experience, as the adopters friends and family spread the news by word of mouth.
There are still some good and well meaning folks in animal rescue who claim they cannot afford to offer adoption incentives. In my humble opinion, we can't afford not to and will not get to No Kill Nova Scotia without them.
5 comments:
Shelters should call all "Free to Good Home " adds and offer to spay/neuter the mother and father in return for the puppies/kittens.Of course the shelter would have to guarantee to re home all.This something that I think is possible today for dogs but with the sheer number of cats would require other programs(free spay/neuter and tnr)in order to fulfill the guarantee.RG.
Great ideas!!!! thanks!!!!
I think it would be a wonderful idea to send this article to the Cape Breton SPCA... they could really use some ideas and motivation.
A true low cost spay neuter program for the maritimes is at the top of my wish list. There are many animals in "good homes" out there who are still not altered and are producing more kittens and puppies. The only reason they are not getting them fixed is a lack of money, I consider them "good homes" as they are committed to keeping their pet and that pet is treated like a family member. They ask for help and we give what we can, but vets are very wary of helping "owned" pets and there are no breaks for us money-wise if we choose to try to help them.
We have more than 1 volunteer vet (not practising) willing to help do that, but other vets and the vet ass. will not allow because we are not a vet clinic and they think they are losing business, so it's a catch 22.
Don't know about other shelters but our vet costs keep going up and up and we are not getting much of a reduction in cost anymore. We are already subsidizing the cost of adoption by about 2/3 (i.e. for every $100 adoption, it costs us close to $300 so we are operating on a $200 deficit).
The gov. of Maine has the following program (below paragraph). Which would take a lot of the strain of shelters and SPCAs. I don't know if there are groups out there already lobbying for low cost spay neuter in the maritimes, but I for one would love to join one.
HELP! FIX ME Maine's Low Cost Spay/Neuter Program
Kitties and Puppies
You may be eligible for the State's low cost spay/neuter program.
If you receive or are eligible for one of the following programs...
* Food Stamps
* Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
* Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
* Social Security Disability (SSD)
* Maine Care (Medicaid)
You can have your cat fixed for $10, and your dog fixed for $20.pp
Is there any evidence that this program has had any affect on shelter save rates in Maine. ( If anyone publishes their actual save rates with out manipulation in the first place).It is very difficult to determine the success of these programs because there are no standard measuring tools used from one shelter to the next.RG
I don't know if there have been any studies RG, but I know if we had access to that in my province, it would prevent a lot of litters from being born, thus saving lives in the process. Most of the people who are calling us for help with spay/neuter are on Welfare or some sort of disability.
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