Animal Rescue and Facebook – Not Perfect!
It wasn’t something I’d thought about – until I read the article on MNN (Mother Nature Network).
You see, I’d always thought that social media – particularly Facebook and Twitter – were great for animal rescue.
After all, they give animal rescue shelters a free platform to help the animals in their care. They can easily share photos and news about their adoptable pets with countless people.
And indeed, many animal rescue organizations believe that hundreds of animal lives have been saved by their photos being shared.
So what’s the problem?
Well, there are several.
In fact, the problems are so big, that some animal rescue organizations have stopped using social media altogether – because of the pandemonium they create.
Overwhelm and Unfollow
One issue is that people see so many desperate photos with captions like “will be euthanized tomorrow”, that they unfollow.
This then reduces the reach of the animal rescue organization.
But more worrying are those that DO react to the photo.
Inundated
Shelters can be inundated with calls and emails from people who are concerned about an animal’s fate – even though they’re not necessarily able or willing to help.
One animal rescue shelter believes that for every 50 calls about an animal which will be put to sleep, only one, on average, will be someone offering to adopt or donate. Just one!
The other callers want to know about the animal’s status, or even complain to the shelter.
Most shelters have limited budgets, and fielding all these calls takes staff away from caring for the animals.
Far Away
After seeing a desperate plea to save an animal’s life, people will often contact their local animal rescue shelter requesting help. But the local shelter will almost always have animals right there, also facing death. If they can’t help locally, how can they help an animal hundreds of miles away?
No Follow Through
Aside from the barrage of comments that inevitably arise after posting a plea to help an animal, there are some people who, amazingly, will post “I’ll take him” – and then not follow through. Other concerned citizens see that comment, assume the animal is safe, and move on.
What You Can Do
Luckily, there are several things you can do to help.
- Adopt or foster a pet, if you can (not everyone can do this). It’s miles more green and eco friendly than buying from a pet shop or puppy mill.
- Donate money or your time to your local animal shelter.
- Do share animal rescue shelters’ posts – but share them wisely:
- Share photos of animals in your local shelter(s), not from 1,000 miles away.
- Don’t just share pics of animals due to be killed, share their other photos too, so the shelter can make room for new arrivals.
- And also share their positive stories so your followers can see what good is being done. Hopefully this will inspire them to help too.
Warm regards,
P.S. Here’s a heartfelt plea from animal rescue shelters:
- Please don’t comment “Someone needs to save this dog” because this puts the responsibility on everyone but yourself.
- And please don’t comment “I wish I could help, but…” it just clutters up the post, doesn’t do anything positive, and takes staff time away from caring for the animals.
Use the tips in “What you can do” above to help – you’ll be helping to save innocent lives.
Go do it – today! Thank you!
And please spread awareness of what’s good – and not so good – for animal rescue shelters on social media. Quick sharing buttons below and right.
