Local shelters get creative to place overlooked pets
Social media, community events, including puppy kissing booths and doggy dips, effective
For 14 months, Spartacus has waited, wagging his tail and jumping excitedly against the door whenever potential adopters walk past his cage at the Center for Animal Health and Welfare.
Few people give the rambunctious 6-year-old pit bull mix with a lopsided grin a second look as they head toward cages holding puppies and more popular breeds at the Easton shelter. Brought in as a stray and nursed back to health after a minor stroke, Spartacus has been waiting for a home longer than any other dog at the shelter.
“It’s a shame, because he’s the kind of dog who just wants his own person,” said Ashley Rodriguez, the shelter’s canine supervisor. “He thinks he’s a lap dog.”
Animal shelters everywhere struggle to find homes for overlooked animals. Senior pets, highly energetic breeds and dark-coated animals such as black cats are often difficult to re-home.
To spark interest in these pets, local shelters are getting creative. Some, including the Center for Animal Health and Welfare, will offer a puppy kissing booth while taking part in this weekend’s “Clear the Shelters” event, a nationwide campaign in which adoption fees are waived.
Others, like the Lehigh County Humane Society in Allentown, host festival-like happenings like Saturday’s “Waggathon,” which will coincide with the city’s “Woofstock,” a community bash featuring music, vendors and “doggy dips” at nearby Mack Pool.
“Anything you can do to get people to notice them is good,” said Jackie Folsom, development coordinator at the Lehigh County Humane Society, petting Madison, a 5-year-old pit bull mix who has been at the shelter for eight months, longer than any other dog.
Community events are effective, said Deirdre Snyder, the Lehigh County Humane Society’s director of development. During the nonprofit’s recent Best Friend Weekend, which featured entertainment and waived adoption fees, 52 dogs, 53 cats and one rabbit found forever homes.
Even still, the shelter on Dixon Street remains almost at capacity, holding 98 dogs, 80 cats and a handful of rabbits and gerbils as of this week.
It’s the same story at the Center for Animal Health and Welfare, which had 151 cats, 42 adult dogs and 15 puppies awaiting adoption this week. To lure in more adopters, the shelter will waive adoption fees and have a lemonade stand next to the kissing booth outside the facility on Saturday. Only those interested in getting slobbered on by a 3-month-old puppy need apply.
Most small dogs and puppies brought to the Lehigh County Humane Society are adopted within two months, with older dogs taking an average of four months to find a home, Snyder said. Animals wait an average of 90 days before being adopted from the Center for Animal Health and Welfare, executive director Kelly Bauer said.
About 6.5 million companion animals enter shelters each year, according to the New Yorkbased American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Many shelters, including the Michigan Humane Society, have launched programs to spur adoptions of overlooked pets, including hiring photographers to create poignant portraits for social media.
Holding adoption events in a place other than a shelter boosted overlooked animals’ exposure dramatically, the Michigan Humane Society found in a 2014 survey, cutting stay times almost in half.
For dogs like Madison at the Lehigh County Humane Society and Spartacus at the Center for Animal Health and Welfare, who get passed over because they don’t interact well with other dogs, moving adoption events away from the cacophony of barking at a shelter was shown to be “highly effective” in spurring adoption, the Michigan researchers found.
Community events are usually not as helpful for adult cats, who dislike being moved to an unfamiliar location, said Liz Bryant, feline supervisor at the Center.
Senior cats like Zephyr, a 15-year-old domestic longhair who was surrendered in early 2017 after living with a family for years and has been waiting for an adopter longer than any other cat at the nonprofit, are frightened by crowds of people.
“Even with all she’s been through, she still loves people and just wants to sit on your lap. She’d be a great fit for someone who is retired and wants some company,” Bryant said.
Though she may not like going out on the town, Zephyr doesn’t mind having her photo taken. That makes her a great candidate for social media, another effective tool for shelters.
Photos and videos allow Facebook followers to connect with animals on an emotional level, said Bauer, who last month created a viral video about a homeless veteran’s quest to find a foster home for his cat during a heat wave. Within hours a foster home was found, and the veteran was offered temporary housing.
“Social media does work,” said Folsom, who creates online posts for the Humane Society. “People will call and say they fell in love with a cat they saw on Facebook. And people can get to know us, too. It gives them a look into our world.”