It’s been a busy week over at Animal Cafe, and this week I’ve got a two great podcasts to share with you. Project Puffin There are so many things to like about this project and the details surrounding the interview by guest podcaster Hilary Lane that I’m just going to list a few: Puffins —…
Celebrating Animal Shelter Volunteers: The Video
While looking for the latest in my two series, Pet Adoption Videos That Don’t Make Me Want to Kill Myself and Spay Neuter with a Smile, I found that Animal Friends of Pittsburgh, one of my favorite sources for the first two, also produces a third kind, where they celebrate their volunteers. Think about what…
Needing to Be Needed: How A Less Adoptable Dog Changed My Life
PetFinder.com’s Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week is wrapping up today. While it was a terrific campaign, I initially took exception to one of the slogans: “Adopt Me Because I Need You” (see the widget at the end of this story). I’d rather highlight the joy our pets bring us, and the word “need” makes these dogs and cats…
Pet Adoption Videos That Don’t Make Me Want To Kill Myself #12
This video by photographer/videographer Robin Layton, which I discovered on the inimitable Life With Dogs site, doesn’t fit the standard mold of the PAVTDMMWTKM series; it wasn’t created for an animal welfare organization, for one thing. But it does celebrate rescue, as you’ll see at the end. And it’ll make you smile. Who needs another…
What Would a Responsible Conference Organizer (or Friend) Do?
I really didn’t want to write this post. I hate pet world politics and I like to keep things positive. And I both admire and like the organizers of the BlogPaws conference personally and professionally; I’ve been extremely grateful in the past for the support I’ve gotten from them for my blog and my book,…
Animal Welfare Videos That Don’t Make Me Want to Kill Myself: Puppy Mill Edition
Puppy mill operators subject dogs to horrendous conditions before tidying them up to sell them to pet stores or showcase them on the internet. You’ve probably seen plenty of those graphic, disgusting images; I’m never going to show them here. The avoidance of suffering porn — as I think of it — is also the…
Saving Satos: Don’t We Have Enough Strays?
Debbie Jacobs is best known in pet circles as an expert on fearful dogs, a subject she covers extensively in her aptly named Fearful Dogs blog and related book (which — full disclosure — I blurbed because it’s terrific). But she also saves satos — Puerto Rican street dogs — as she discusses in her…
Drunk Puppy Buying Banned, Pet Store Owners Portrayed as Heroes
The Bare Bones Story Last month, a story made the news cycles about the problem pet store owners in a posh New York neighborhood were having with people coming in drunk and buying puppies, resulting in a ban on the practice. Typical reporting went: Inebriated passers-by are falling in love with playful pooches frolicking in…
Help PAWS NY Help the Elderly & Disabled Keep Their Pets
Like every other pet blogger, I get a lot of pet-related press releases in my email inbox, most from people who want me to promote their products (for free) or causes (requiring money from me, or more time than I have). What keeps me from automatically pushing “delete” is that I also get the occasional…
Behind Door Number 3: A Winning Shelter Campaign
Last month I highlighted the Austin Humane Society’s awesome ad campaign, which proved that going positive is not only uplifting but effective. As a result of the new campaign the AHS saw: A 30% increase in monthly adoptions, year-over-year, as of May 2010. A 100% increase in holiday donations, year-over-year. Online donations that nearly doubled…