I am a neutered male, buff and white Domestic Shorthair. The shelter staff think I am about 6 months old.
It takes only a moment to make a difference and save a kitty’s life.
Reston, VA (PRWEB) August 13, 2013
Seven out of ten cats that enter into the nation’s shelter system are killed. Beautiful, healthy creatures, killed because there is no room, no funding and they cannot find their way home. The fault is not the shelters, they do the best they can with the resources they have. Shelters need our help, but probably not where you think.
MissingCitters.com, a leading pet lost and found website, provides advice for those working with shelters to help solve this problem and bring the cats back home. The situation is analogous to the story of "The Little Dutch Boy" who plugged a leak in a dyke, made a small personal sacrifice, and prevented a flood.
Shelters spend almost all of their time at the “back door” of the shelter trying to get animals adopted, focusing on “the flood.” If no one rescues a stray from the shelter or if they are not someone’s ideal pet, they are getting euthanized. The effort that’s missing is at the “front door” of the shelter, i.e., "stemming the leak,” where return-to-owner rates are abysmal.
This can be remedied with awareness of existing technology and smarter use of what’s available on the internet. MissingCritters.com offers tips and solutions for shelters, rescues, and local communities, requiring little effort to get cats back home where they belong:
- Websites. Almost all shelters have websites, but many are old, not kept up, or do not clearly display where recently found cats can be viewed online. They are just not being used to their fullest potential. Shelters could use their website to post missing cats, pictures and keep in contact with missing pet owners in their local community. If a website savvy individual was able to spend time helping shelters to make their site more user friendly and provide a platform of information for visitors, those looking for their missing cats would have a place to start.
It takes only a moment to make a difference and save a kitty’s life.
- The Internet. All it would take is a post to a free online lost and found site to give the owners one more chance to find their beloved pet. High school students who are required to perform community service as well as community volunteers could increase the chance of stray cats being found by just twice-a-week visits to a local shelter. They only need to enter newly arrived cats' information into a free site that requires minimal effort - e.g., a post with a photo on Craigslist.org takes only a moment; with MissingCritters.com, a stray cat can be instantly posted by taking a photo with a cell phone and emailing it to post(at)MissingCritters(dot)com.
- Lost and Found. Most shelters have some sort of lost and found program on their website, fliers, or other local means. Providing help to get the cats found, instead of just focusing on adoption, can dramatically decrease the number of cats being euthanized.
MissingCritters.com was created to provide lost and found solutions for lost pets. They aim to educate the community, offer assistance to shelters and advise on how to help get animals back home where they belong.
About MissingCritters.com:
MissingCritters.com is a website founded with the vision: What if all lost and found animals could instantly be posted on a public bulletin board with almost no effort and was 100% free? Our approach is simple, yet elegant – Use a cell. Click a pic. Save a stray! Companies interested in advertising to support the site can contact Stuart Harris at SHarris(at)MissingCritters(dot)com.