- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #21
Our Humane Society only deals with cats.. no dogs or other animals.
Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming....
Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming....
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Ideas For Humane Society
- Thread starter artiemom
- Start Date
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2014
- Messages
- 8,089
- Purraise
- 13,358
Are you good with Facebook? I have seen lots of successful rescues reach out this way. Also having a store that has the cats is a good start. This gives people a brick and mortar place to meet at or help get people into the door. Also check out senior centers=often they are also looking for bodies to help with their stuff-maybe combo fund raise with them? One senior center in Salsibury mass had a yard sale at the senior center but the money went to the cat rescue.
Pictures of available adoptions helps more than just a text block about the cat. Getting to know the cats and what they like and don't like=then write a mini novel/chapter with all the details about said cat. IE cat likes dogs or doesn't like dogs, likes to be pet or only lap cat or plays or sleeps a lot-there's a ton of people looking for companion animals=we just need to find the right mixture. Although it does seem kittens get adopted faster but maybe we can slowly turn this around.
Pictures of available adoptions helps more than just a text block about the cat. Getting to know the cats and what they like and don't like=then write a mini novel/chapter with all the details about said cat. IE cat likes dogs or doesn't like dogs, likes to be pet or only lap cat or plays or sleeps a lot-there's a ton of people looking for companion animals=we just need to find the right mixture. Although it does seem kittens get adopted faster but maybe we can slowly turn this around.
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2017
- Messages
- 111
- Purraise
- 137
I live in a very rural area and out local humane society maintains no shelter but only does fosters. I know that they struggle from time to time to find foster homes, typically for their older or special needs cat. I fostered a litter of kittens and had just a great experience with them. The woman who is the main foster coordinater was very responsive, answered all my questions right away, and provided food, toys and the like for our fosters. I had never had cats before, so I really wanted to experience having cats in my home before I commited to adoption. I also loved the chance to interact with six little kitties over a couple months and know that whatever kitten we adopted would have a personality that gelled with our own. We had such a great experience that I ended up adopting a pair rather than a single cat.
The organization is very connected to our community, and has a lot of volunteers who are newly retired as well as younger people. Some of the things they do that helps are:
-go into the local elementary schools and give talks (with kittens and puppies) about the appropriate way to touch, pet and care for animals so that they don't get bite. These workshops are given to very young children. With the older elementary grades they talk about spraying/neutering and TNR. In respose (and without solicitation) we had classes do fundraising bake sales as a kind of thank you.
-As it's a rural area, they tend to advertise cats as either 'barn cats' or 'home cats' based on their socialization.
-They offer free spraying/neutering twice a year through donations and that had reduced the feral population to almost nothing here. They are almost no unwanted cat/dogs born within the main town and they're working on the outlying areas at the moment (they won't adopt an animal without ii being fixed already or signing a contract with date of future fixing, the fees are included in adoption fees).
-a few weeks before the free program they have a large fundraiser (typically a massive plant sale). They also have plant sales for mother's day, and a fundraising evening a couple times per year.
-they advertise on all the public bulletin boards and in the local pet store. Their meetings are publically advertised and all are invited to attend.
-our local community has a facebook page for local communications. They use this page to advertise for needed fosters and major sales, but I like that they don't over post either.
The organization is very connected to our community, and has a lot of volunteers who are newly retired as well as younger people. Some of the things they do that helps are:
-go into the local elementary schools and give talks (with kittens and puppies) about the appropriate way to touch, pet and care for animals so that they don't get bite. These workshops are given to very young children. With the older elementary grades they talk about spraying/neutering and TNR. In respose (and without solicitation) we had classes do fundraising bake sales as a kind of thank you.
-As it's a rural area, they tend to advertise cats as either 'barn cats' or 'home cats' based on their socialization.
-They offer free spraying/neutering twice a year through donations and that had reduced the feral population to almost nothing here. They are almost no unwanted cat/dogs born within the main town and they're working on the outlying areas at the moment (they won't adopt an animal without ii being fixed already or signing a contract with date of future fixing, the fees are included in adoption fees).
-a few weeks before the free program they have a large fundraiser (typically a massive plant sale). They also have plant sales for mother's day, and a fundraising evening a couple times per year.
-they advertise on all the public bulletin boards and in the local pet store. Their meetings are publically advertised and all are invited to attend.
-our local community has a facebook page for local communications. They use this page to advertise for needed fosters and major sales, but I like that they don't over post either.
Last edited:
Finding partners in the business community that are willing to host adoption events. Rural I'd look for feed stores. They benefit with customers coming in and shopping while seeing the cats and if they offer supplies for new cat owners even better. Generally the business donates some to the rescue but a reliable high traffic area in your rural area with the support of a business and perhaps their staff. At least one pet store in Alb that keeps less than 4 cats has the employee tending them.
I encourage you to not think small because you live in a rural area but think big. Look for a local photographer that might be willing to do some free portraits of the cats up for adoption for the right to use them as advertisement for their business. Get the local tent rental to donate one for an adoption event and they get free advertising. Partner with other rescues and ask someone who is doing it right to help. You also have to give back to the community. Your rescue in t shirts working at a charity event for someone else.
I encourage you to not think small because you live in a rural area but think big. Look for a local photographer that might be willing to do some free portraits of the cats up for adoption for the right to use them as advertisement for their business. Get the local tent rental to donate one for an adoption event and they get free advertising. Partner with other rescues and ask someone who is doing it right to help. You also have to give back to the community. Your rescue in t shirts working at a charity event for someone else.
Do you have people who play with the cats in a room with windows?
When I volunteered at PetSmart we had a glass room where the cats where housed in kennels. I would take each cat out and let them wander the room and play with them with a bird wand toy. We found if people saw the cats playing like kittens with the bird toy they were more likely to adopt them.
I even had a couple come in with a little boy who were just buying dog food but wound up adopting a 3 year old tabby because their boy fell in love with her. They sent us photos of the boy and his cat later on.
I think if people can see the cats real temperament rather than just seeing them sulk in a corner of a steel kennel they are more likely to adopt them. I think this is especially true for the adult cats who often get overlooked.
We also had events and programs to help inform people of the benefits of adopting an adult cat.
We also had annual dog walks to raise money for the cats. People could also just walk by themselves if they didn't have a dog.
As someone else mentioned bake sales and community garage sales are also good ideas. People can donate unwanted items and the money raised helps the animals.
Do you have a barn buddy program? We had one for cats who were too wild to be placed in a home. Farmers could adopt these cats to help with rodent control.
When I volunteered at PetSmart we had a glass room where the cats where housed in kennels. I would take each cat out and let them wander the room and play with them with a bird wand toy. We found if people saw the cats playing like kittens with the bird toy they were more likely to adopt them.
I even had a couple come in with a little boy who were just buying dog food but wound up adopting a 3 year old tabby because their boy fell in love with her. They sent us photos of the boy and his cat later on.
I think if people can see the cats real temperament rather than just seeing them sulk in a corner of a steel kennel they are more likely to adopt them. I think this is especially true for the adult cats who often get overlooked.
We also had events and programs to help inform people of the benefits of adopting an adult cat.
We also had annual dog walks to raise money for the cats. People could also just walk by themselves if they didn't have a dog.
As someone else mentioned bake sales and community garage sales are also good ideas. People can donate unwanted items and the money raised helps the animals.
Do you have a barn buddy program? We had one for cats who were too wild to be placed in a home. Farmers could adopt these cats to help with rodent control.
Social media is THE way to get things done these days, so those resources are good ones. You may also want to check out BestFriends.org and list your community's HS there with a request for volunteers, fosters, and so on. Yahoo Groups might be another place to look (or if you're not on Yahoo, whomever your email client is, may have something like this, that connects people locally by common interests). You may also check and see if area veterinarians, including your good ones, would allow your HS to post flyers asking for volunteers, fosters, etc. and giving the contact/website. Hope some of these ideas are helpful. Kitten season is tough everywhere.
Thank you for your suggestions it has been comforting to me in a positive action towards the crossing the bridge of my Dandii . And hoping to do somthing positive in her name . I don't ever want anyone to feel as helpless as I did not having the money for my Dandii to get medical attention she needed I want every person to able to take their loved pets to the veternarian
Thank you again
Thank you again
My heartfelt condolences for the loss of your beloved Dandii. I hope you will find comfort in time knowing she watches over you and that you will be reunited in due time. I have also been in the situation you describe, many more times than I care to think about; my own personal beliefs are of comfort in those times, as I hope yours will be for you. It is not in our ability to be able to control everything and we do not have the gift of being able to save lives in every instance, but it is the quality, not the quantity, of life that matters most, and Dandii must certainly have known love in your care. Let that be of comfort to you as well.
