Take a look at these two photos of puppies in an animal shelter. Which photo would you think would be more effective in getting homes for those pups?
I was giving some assistance to a rescue group in another state that was dealing with a particularly difficult rescue situation. After looking over their proposed adoption listings, complete with all the details of their tragic story and gory photographs of the hellish animal control facility they'd been rescued from, I told them their approach, and in particular those photos, were not going to be effective in marketing those pets for adoption.
I got back a blistering tirade over how I shouldn't "accuse" or "blame" the shelter (words I never used, by the way), but rather blame the people who "forced" the shelter to treat animals this way because they wouldn't spay and neuter or be responsible.
Now, my point was about marketing, not shelter reform, but it was clear I hit a nerve. And guess what, rescue person? You hit one right back -- the one where I'm so sick and tired of this blame-shifting that I'm ready to scream.
No one is forcing anyone to kill or mistreat animals, not in your state nor any other. (In fact, I'm not sure you understand the meaning of the word "force." The people who work in the shelter in question do not have a gun held to their heads.) They may be killing these animals, and caring for them so badly, because they believe they have no choice, but they're wrong. And in this day and age, with progressive and proven sheltering practices spreading across the continent and even beyond, to hide behind that tired old whine is even less believable than it ever was.
If people mired in this old-school, ineffective, failed paradigm would step out of it for a few minutes, they'd realize how bad they're making themselves look every time they, always predictably, trot it out. "It's not our fault we do what we do," they say. "It's all the bad people! Blame them! We're just helpless victims!"
You people really need some new material.
My suggestion that you get new photos will help get those pets into homes. Think about that while you continue to enable your community's filthy high-kill shelter to fail the animals inside its walls.
Then go get a freaking camera. Because after all, everyone wants to adopt puppies who are smeared with feces and looking out through rusty cage bars, right?
Photo on left from Nevada Humane Society presentation on increasing pet adoptions. Photo on right courtesy of Nathan Winograd.
But - you should "walk in their shoes" and blah.
Posted by: YesBiscuit! | 24 January 2012 at 05:51 PM
well said!!!
Posted by: Christie Arlotta | 24 January 2012 at 06:02 PM
I completely agree with you
Posted by: Amy Southard | 24 January 2012 at 06:51 PM
Yep - let's do everything to drive people away or prevent them from coming and then blame them for not showing up to adopt these sick, miserable puppies who look like they are going to cost a mint in vet bills before they are let near the kids. Fools.
Posted by: Cheryl | 24 January 2012 at 08:16 PM
Why does the rescue need to state all the details? Just state that the animal is a stray or owner turn-in rescued from a local shelter? I would not want to look at gory photographs of a shelter. This just shows how ineffective some rescuers can be and then they wonder why their animals are not getting adopted!
Posted by: Jennifer | 25 January 2012 at 03:33 PM