Animal Shelter and their Public Relations
Animal Shelter and their Public Relations
Millions of animals enter animal shelters in the U.S. Their survival depends on people. Some of those people are volunteers, some are fosters, and some are those who simply care. Animal shelters, on the other hand, depend on donations from the public to do their work. People are helping people so animals can live. Sometimes a simple thing as spreading the word about the shelter’s needs or accomplishments can make a difference. There are many job functions within animal shelters. Some of them are volunteer coordinator, foster coordinator, and public relations employees. When it comes to public relations (PR), releasing effective messages connects animal shelters, like any other organization, to the public. People are looking for trustworthy and compelling stories that will help them make decisions on how to engage with an organization. Such stores can improve, transform, and save the lives of animals. But meaningless PR that is based on empty promises can have devastating effects on people and, most importantly, on animals.
Those three little words—- I love dogs! S.M.
Millions of animals enter animal shelters in the U.S. Their survival depends on people. Some of those people are volunteers, some are fosters, and some are those who simply care. Animal shelters, on the other hand, depend on donations from the public to do their work. People are helping people so animals can live. Sometimes a simple thing as spreading the word about the shelter’s needs or accomplishments can make a difference. There are many job functions within animal shelters. Some of them are volunteer coordinator, foster coordinator, and public relations employees. When it comes to public relations (PR), releasing effective messages connects animal shelters, like any other organization, to the public. People are looking for trustworthy and compelling stories that will help them make decisions on how to engage with an organization. Such stores can improve, transform, and save the lives of animals. But meaningless PR that is based on empty promises can have devastating effects on people and, most importantly, on animals.
Those three little words—- I love dogs! S.M.
In 2018, I was looking for ways to show appreciation to my dog Rocky, for bringing joy and unconditional love into my life, and for being the only family member and friend who stayed with me for better or worse. So I started writing my first ‘dog book’. A year letter, ‘Rocky and a Girl with a Curl’ was published. Even so, I felt that was still not enough. So I started reading any dog-related book and article I could find to get some hints about what else I needed do; to get inspired to do more. Many of them mentioned one phrase-‘animal shelter’, which made me think of a place Rocky ended up like a puppy, the same place that put his name on the euthanasia list. Living in Texas which has the reputation of being the state that euthanizes more animals than any other state, I finally knew what I needed to do. I realized that there were many dogs, just like Rocky was once, waiting behind bars for someone to save them.
While I knew I would not be able to save all of them, I also felt that saving one life at a time, can make a difference- the difference between life and death. With that in mind, I started contacting animal shelters and scheduling visits with shelter employees responsible for public relations. I was so enthusiastic to share my plan with them. The plan basically consisted of offers such as taking their least adoptable animals to my reading events, joining them at their adoption events and inspiring the public to adopt by sharing my and Rocky’s story, fostering, volunteering, and also sponsoring adoptions.
In the end, out of several animal shelters (some of them the high-kill shelters) and one animal rescue organization that I approached, none of them expressed their interest in any of my offers. Not being a person who gives up easily, especially not on things that I am passionate about, I was able to foster and find adopters for a couple of dogs residing in one of the shelters, one of them scheduled to be put down. The only way I learned about those dogs was by coming across a concerned citizen’s post on social media.
