The Shelter Pet Project

Hey! Take a look at a new campaign just launched by The Advertising Council, in partnership with The Humane Society of the United States and Maddie’s Fund. It’s called The Shelter Pet Project and it aims to encourage pet lovers to make animal shelters and welfare organizations their first option when looking for a companion cat or dog.

Believe it or not, the vast majority of the 75 million dogs and 88 million cats in American households have come from sources other than a shelter. Far too many of them are the progeny of puppy mill dogs and cats that are wholesaled to pet stores and then marketed to you, the all-too-often unknowing public. And while you’re inadvertently encouraging the proliferation of breeding for profit, eight million pets enter shelters and rescue groups every year, with three million of these healthy and treatable pets euthanized because there’s no-one to adopt them.

A series of cute and humerous PSAs (public service ads), created pro bono by Draftfcb Chicago, aim to show that shelter pets are frequently the victims of ignorant and unkind people and, in fact, can be wonderful and loving family members.

Take a look at The Shelter Pet Project site where your hosts, a Boston Terrier, a cute brown mutt and a lovely feline, help guide you around.

The “Pet Personals” section is where you can search for a dog or cat in your area. To help narrow the field you’ll need to complete a short questionnaire. Some of the questions are a little oblique, to say the least -” Which candy bar size do you prefer?” It took me a while to realize that this was a reference to the size of pet I was seeking. Once you add in your zip code a list of pets, with pictures, will appear. Click on the picture to learn more, including the shelter contact information.

One feature I really like is the Question and Answer section. It gives you the ability to post a question, which is then reviewed by a variety of experts who later respond. All questions and answers are also archived so that you can scroll through them at leisure.

Another fun thing is the Adopt-A-Gram, though it’s a bit confusing for the recipient unless they have a webcam. I sent one to my husband (who doesn’t have a webcam) and it required copying a code and finding where to paste it on the site in order to view the message.

No matter, I applaud every effort to help the millions of critters who are desperately seeking homes and kudos to The Shelter Pet Project for their worthy cause.

“Old Yeller was bought for 3 dollars from a shelter; his real name was Spike.”
-World Features