But I’ve been lucky enough to be able to get mine.

Click play below if you’d like to see it! :)

We would go on to discover not only could we work together, but that our passion for pets would grow an enormous beating heart – the community all pulling together to get the PetRescue project off the ground and build it into one of the most successful animal welfare iniatives in Australia. Little did we know getting pets up onto the web would be the first step in a huge labour of love, working to turn animal sheltering into a little known and misunderstood industry, into one of the country’s most fashionable social movements.

JB, Vix and me! – PetRescue 2009

Capturing the love

Everyone who has a pet, understands the love of a pet. Harnessing that love and turning it into action has been key in bringing rescue pet adoption to the masses. Adoption adverts focused around blaming the pet’s old owner for its current predicament, or designed to shock or horrify the public had long been shown to be building a barrier between rescue groups and their communities. Potential adopters were actively avoiding rescue fearing they would feel sad or guilty after visiting their local shelter.

PetRescue banned all ‘death row’ style advertisements and stories of animal abuse. Recognising the need to promote the positives of animal adoption, the site became a place of happy stories with an emphasis on those things that build bonds between pet and owner. People should feel happy when they’re bringing a new family member into their lives!

Be able to use the power of the internet to reach a new audience was also vital to increasing awareness of just how many adoptable pets are available in rescue. It’s only when the public were able to see each single pet as an individual, most highly adoptable and simply lost, or homeless for one of the myriad of genuine and not-so-genuine reasons that see pets surrendered, that the public were able to make their own determination that shelter pets are in fact, simply pets who need a new home.

So from 2004 onwards, we set out to convince animal shelters that online pet advertisements were the way of the future, overcome fears that it would lead to hoards of ‘irresponsible’ owners acquiring and discarding pets and coaching them to write pet profiles that attracted people to adoption.

Later we would include ‘holiday promotions’, the use of video in pet profiles, effective use of traditional media and the huge different great photography can make in animal adoption.

Nearly 60,000 pets later, PetRescue’s online advertisements are still a testement to what positive attitudes and community engagement can achieve. Adoptions are up in 2010. The number of potential adopters visiting PetRescue has grown immensely this year and we are now seeing over 1,300 dogs and 750 cats finding new homes each month. In addition to those enquiries made by phone, every month over 3,500 email enquires are sent by our mail systems to our rescue group members and a staggering 150,000 pet listing alerts are sent to people looking to adopt a new pet.

Overcoming distance as a barrier to happiness

In 2007, PetRescue coordinated its first ‘interstate adoption’. A small, tufty-haired dog called ‘Penny’ had been taken into care by POOPS (Pets of Older People) when her owner passed away. She had been waiting for two months in foster care with no-one interested in adopting this well-mannered elderly girl.

After a plea for help from Penny’s carers, PetRescue enlisted the generous support of Virgin Blue and Jetpets to give Penny a second chance at life;

And so began Penny’s big adventure!

Penny was offered a free flight to Brisbane to meet up with a carer from Save a Pound Dog, who had a great new home ready and waiting. Penny traveled like a celebrity pet, with a personal pet travel consultant from Jetpets arranging her flights and door to door service to her new digs.

Now settled in her new home, Penny sends licks! and woofs! to the team at Virgin Blue and Jetpets for helping her find a fantastic new forever home.

But that was just the beginning. Jetpets generously went on to donate three free interstate flights for needy pets each month – that’s over 100 pets that have found new homes by flying across the country! By connecting rescue groups with like-minded groups in other states, a safety net can be created and opportunities to move pets from places of low demand, to places of higher demand are discovered.

The biggest boon for this program was in mid 2009, when PetRescue’s first ‘Jet Setting Kitten‘ rescue saw nine death row kittens moved from Queenslands, where they have a year round kitten season, to South Australia where they were adopted in just four hours! 54 kittens would go on to follow in their footsteps that year.

See Vickie waving goodbye to these kitties in this news video:

Getting pets out into the community

One of the easiest ways to overcome myths and misconceptions about rescue pets is simply to let people to meet them. That’s why in 2008, PetRescue developed an in-store adoption program that could be rolled out into pet store in the country. The program launched in 2009, in PETstock stores around the country, and now in 2010 is being expanded to all pet stores who’d like to offer the program.

Working with ethical pet stores nationwide, PetRescue’s In-Store Adoption Program brings pets out of cages and into the community. Giving adopters the chance to meet and interact with rescue pets, learn about responsible pet ownership and speak to an adoption adviser about how to choose the best pet for their family. Rescue groups are offered support that can help improve the client experience and resources on best practice adoption processes.

Redemption – how it changed everything

I remember reading Nathan Winograd’s Redemption and folding corners to highlight paragraphs I wanted to share – it completely blew me away! Finally, everything we had been working on made sense. Suddenly PetRescue’s belief that there was so much more we could be doing, wasn’t some naive dream. We did need more positive promotions, we did need to attract adopters and we did (and still do) need stronger and more dynamic leadership from the management of animal welfare groups in Australia.

But most importantly; we absolutely can adopt our way out of killing.

I was desperate for the plan in this book to become common knowledge. We contacted Nathan and asked if he would be willing to give our shelters a discount on bringing a bulk lot of books to Australia. He instead donated 400 copies; one for each of our shelter groups. We wrapped them in xmas paper and delivered them to every shelter in Australia.

PetRescue also invited Nathan to come and speak at the NDN Conference. His presentation can be seen here:

Being able to harness the momentum of the US No Kill movement has been a huge boost to rescue here in Australia. We are very blessed to have the amazing leadership of Nathan to help lead us into a better future for animals.

The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive brings a new dawn for homeless pets

In PetRescue was blessed to develop a relationship with PEDIGREE® which launched as the 2009 PEDIGREE Adoption Drive. Incorporating TV, print and online media and featuring real-life homeless pets, the campaign was designed to highlight the plight of the thousands of dogs euthanased every year because homes aren’t be found.

In 2010 PEDIGREE has again made an enormous commitment too help support the animal rescue groups of this country. With guidance from PetRescue, PEDIGREE will be investing $4 million into an awareness campaign designed to pull on the emotional heartstrings of all Australians and bring adoption to the masses.

This year the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive will run from the 3rd June to the 30th July. Celebrity ambassadors Tom Williams and Myf Warhurst will launch ‘Yellow Dog Day’ which will see yellow dogs appear across Australian capital cities, officially kicking off the campaign.

Also, the campaign this year doesn’t only focus on awareness. For every person who joins the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive Facebook page, PEDIGREE will donate a bowl of food to a rescue group. They are also offering every single new adopted dog parent a free Adoption Kit. The campaign will also launch the Dog Adoption Index, a report into the issue of Dog Homelessness in Australia, in collaboration with PetRescue.

Foster carer save lives

With the majority of our members operating foster care networks, one of the ongoing needs is more carers. The PetFoster initiative will market pet foster caring to the mainstream, bringing community resources, skills and knowledge to our industry.

Designed to link new carers with foster care groups, provide resources to existing foster care groups and to help new groups develop a program based on the experiences of successful foster groups across the country, PetFoster aims to empower a community that helps save Australia’s homeless pets. The program will be launching this month.

See Vix talking about PetFoster here:

Caring for Cats

Cat ownership is in decline and we believe that this trend must be reversed. In 2010 PetRescue will be working in conjunction with PIAS (the Petcare Information & Advisory Service) to create the first of many programs and campaigns to elevate the status of cats in our society.

A campaign launched through PetRescue’s large email database and social media networks will use viral marketing to bring cats into the spotlight. These guys did a great campaign last year, naming cats Australia’s greatest ‘modern pet’. Check it out below:

What’s the ideal pet for busy people?

It seems these days we’re busier than ever. We work longer hours, there’s more traffic, we even work on weekends. In addition to this, we also seem to be living more than ever in high density living. So where do pets fit into our busy, modern lifestyle?

Video

While, a favourite campaign of mine, the ‘Secret Cat Society’ aims to improve the welfare of free-roaming cats, by empowering carers with simple steps they can take to care for their Secret Cat.

With over 40% of cat owners feeding a cat they don’t own, a movement towards compassionate cat solutions exists through improved vet care, desexing rates and care for these misunderstood animals.

The changing face of communication

- A rescue group has a new litter of puppies, rejected by their mum. A post on Facebook connects them with their community and several foster care options are found within the hour.

- A YouTube video becomes a viral smash amongst supporters of a particular rescue. Within days a dog that had been languishing in the kennels for months, has two new families fighting for the privilege to take him home.

- A post on a rescue group blog about a dog with bad hips calls for donations to the fosters local vet clinic. Within the week, not only is that dog’s life-saving operation paid for, but a family has come forward to adopt the pet and offered to pay too.

All of these examples are real-life situations where clever use of the internet has meant pets who could have been killed, are instead saved.

The internet is changing everything. Things that seemed impossible, are not only happening, but the results are being spread so other groups can also engage in innovative ways. PetRescue is working to bring information from around the world to Australia, through blogs like this (Saving Pets), our informative internet videos and and PetRescue ‘Pet Rescuer’ educational newsletter.

See me speaking about all PetRescue’s projects here:

The modern rescuer; part of something enormous

PetRescue is the definition of a community initiative. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the last six years; we honestly couldn’t be fighting this fight, without you. We love getting your feedback, hearing about your successes and where we can, helping you to enhance the amazing work you do for the animals of Australia.

Together, we have come an awfully long way. Companion animal rescue has never been more needed, nor more relevant in today’s animal loving society. The community is coming together to help spread the word, distance has been eliminated as a hurdle to happiness, and homeless pets are being given a second chance by being seen out in the community through great positive promotions.

Advancements that once seemed completely beyond what we could have hoped for, are now gaining incredible momentum. Even those animals that were once deemed unworthy of a happy life, such as Pit Bulls and community cats, are being recognised as deserving of compassion. PetRescue’s programs continue to make this a reality.

With dedicated, fearless modern rescuers driving Australia to be a world leader in innovative animal sheltering, a No Kill future is a certainty

(start at the 3:20 mark if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, though the whole thing is fantastique!)