Animal shelter cat adoption question?
I volentere at the animal shelter in town and the last time we had a cat adoption was almost 4 months ago. We have several cats who have been at the shelter for almost 2 years and we are trying to think of ways to get them adopted. We have put up signs around the town, set up a facebook acount, and have gone to local fairs and such but our cats just aren't getting adopted. We live in a tiny town of 3-4,000 people. Any ideas are welcome.
Public Comments
1. train the cats to do tricks... it's impressive.2. Cats are very hard to adopt everywhere. It is the same at the shelters in my town. All you can do is increase your marketing efforts and reach out to the public. Ask people when they want a new cat try the shelter first. Get them thinking NOW about the future. You may see changes months down the line.
3. I heard of an animal shelter that halved their adoption costs for a weekend and got a flood of customers. If finances aren't too tight you can try that.
You can also consider dropping leaflets around the town, possibly with an "in urgent need of adoption" section that has photos of animals that have been in the shelter for a long time. Good luck!
4. All adoptions are down right now, Summer seems like a lazy time for all rescues. The public is coming down from Easter and dumping their lost interest pets left and right. Give it time, as the weather changes peoples hearts will too.
5. I don't know where you are, but our PetSmart has cats and kittens from the local shelter there for people to see, play with and adopt. They don't sell dogs or cats so it doesn't threaten them. We have a farmers market that lets them display the animals and try to get adoptions. About any charitable event might be a good place to display them or their description and a picture. Might try a reduced adoption fee on any that were spayed or neutered prior to arriving there that didn't cost you as much to get ready to adopt. If there are tack stores for horses that may be a good place to advertise. If there are pet stores in the area see if they are selling cats and having any success at it. They won't cut into their business more than likely by helping you but you might find out something useful to you. There are just so many homeless pets right now it's hard to do.
