Picture This: Saving more shelter pets
How did you meet your pets? For many people who’ve adopted from a shelter, they first saw a photo of their future pet online. Whether searching very deliberately for that special animal to integrate into their lives or aimlessly scrolling while in line for their morning coffee, their introduction was a virtual one.
It turns out these online posts can make a big difference for a shelter’s save rate. In fact, the available data suggests that shelters listing more of their adoptable pets on the Adopt a Pet and Petfinder platforms tend to have higher save rates—five percentage points higher for organizations listing all of their adoptable pets.
Five points might not sound like much, but that’s five more lives saved for every 100 animals in a shelter’s care.
As user-friendly as these tools are, though, the listings don’t post themselves. This requires staff time—including the time to take good photos. Staff time is often hard to come by, so many shelters use volunteers to take photos and help post their adoptable animals. This is a great opportunity to become involved with your local shelter!
The admission process is often stressful for animals, resulting in unflattering intake photos. Volunteers have the luxury of time, which means they can spend more time with shelter animals and capture them at their best: napping, playing, causing mischief—the same kinds of photos we take of our own pets.
And these don’t need to be professional quality, either—our mobile phones are more than capable. Photographing shelter pets might seem like a small thing, but it’s an opportunity to make a big difference! After all, better photos are more likely to attract the attention of prospective adopters, making this an easy way to help your local shelter save more lives.
