How do you think a charitable organization would do with its blood drives if this was the type of message they posted on social media and gave to news outlets regularly? Does it seem ridiculous to send this sort of message when in fact they are relying on the public – the very people they are criticizing – to donate blood in order to save lives?
Why do some shelter directors put out messages on social media and to news outlets berating the public – for breeding, for surrendering, for being “irresponsible” – when in fact it is the public that holds the key to the shelter’s ability to save lives? The public will donate, volunteer, foster, rescue, adopt and refer friends to your shelter – if you don’t alienate them first. And they will be a whole lot more receptive to your community education efforts too.
(Note: The above is not an actual message from any group. It is fictitious, created merely to illustrate a point.)
Because it’s all they know what to do..and killing..
Very, very good post! Thank you!
Yes. A shelter that I used to volunteer for rarely posts on Facebook. When they do it is usually a pic of “Look at what this idiotic person did leaving a cat in a box outside of our door etc etc” Conversely, another shelter that I currently volunteer with posts a constant flow of “Thank you, Look at this wonderful family who adopted this wonderful dog, Thank You, Thank You, Aren’t our animals wonderful…etc” It is not mystery why I, and my family, donate our time and energy to the shelter with an awareness of how important is to not alienate the public and spread negativity.
You are so right. Positive messages are critical. I can’t look at a lot of photos posted about animals. We need to focus on where they are going in their new lives, not where they have been.
There’s also the shelter that doesn’t use social media AT ALL and then boo hoos about all the animals that they HAD to kill that month. Sins of omission are still sins.
Don’t use social media, and won’t allow people to do adoption events and won’t accept donations to do adoption specials. Don’t even get me started on the crappy hours, or the ACO who baits and traps his neighbors cats, and then brags about it on FB….
Nicely put!
I think extensive bashing of the public is also carried out on Facebook threads, presumably by rescuers, crossposters, and even some pet-owners. The pages where it’s worst are those where the volunteers who run the pages set the stage with their own comments. Urgent Part 2 is the most egregious example — you see it with almost every piece of text they write to “introduce” a reader to a pet — but there are many others. To some extent, this mentality is being perpetuated by those who profess to want to save animals from bad shelters.
great post… sharing
Thanks for that. I think it makes a great point.
I’m reading friendly fire which talks about what shelters really do: the killing, the impossible hours, indifferent employees and the animal organizations that are supposed to help but in realty are hindering progress and promoting the killing. It’s disheartening to know the true animal lovers are being lied to by these agencies.. this is the sad realty, tell us how we mistreat the animals and then ask for money while killing the animals and calling is inhumane and irresponsible.