Thanks to Facebook, today Clara Grace has a house. She’s healthy and (I hope) pleased.
Kent German/ CNET.
A year back, Clara Grace was a starving fighter mix deserted in Fresno,California Her ribs bulged through her rail-thin body and she could not get up on her own. Found by a regional animal shelter, she was so weak and unhealthy she was placed on the euthanasia list.
That may have been completion of her story, however rather Clara’s now living out her senior years with a set of human beings who dote on her. Sweet, peaceful and much healthier, she invests the majority of her time taking a snooze on the softest part of the sofa that utilized to be ours. It’s been a fantastic experience for all of us, and we would not have actually discovered her without Mark Zuckerberg’s production.
2018 was a terrible year forFacebook Beset by an unlimited stream of scandals including user personal privacy, information breaches, dislike speech and phony news, the shine has actually come off a business that when appeared unstoppable. Governments in the United States and the European Union have actually questioned its executives in public hearings and the project to “Delete Facebook” has actually moved from the call of a couple of to a mature motion. But not everybody is signing up with the cause. For animal shelters and rescue companies in specific, Facebook is a vital tool. The social media network’s large reach (2 billion users), adaptability and cost (it’s complimentary to utilize) lets them assist more animals than prior to it existed.
And they’re not ready to provide it up.
“[Social media] permits us to do a lot to assist animals,” states Kymberlie Adams, the social networks director of the ASPCA. “It saves lives… we can’t do business without it.”
A Wonder Dog
Linda Beenau is the creator and director of Wonder Dog Rescue, the San Francisco- based company that conserved Clara from that Fresno shelter. Beenau has actually been assisting pets for 28 years and will not unfriend Facebook anytime quickly.
“It’s a wonderful asset,” she states. [“When promoting adoptable dogs] it’s much better to utilize something with a visual instead of simply send out an e-mail, which might not be opened.”
Wonder Dog isn’t alone. A September research study by the ASPCA discovered that 76 percent of the shelters and rescue companies surveyed state their social networks usage has actually increased in the in 2015, with Facebook being pointed out as the most efficient platform for increasing adoptions. Sixty- 6 percent stated social networks had actually increased fundraising levels and 56 percent stated it’s assisted them be more effective with putting senior animals or those with unique requirements.
Linda Beenau, the creator and director of Wonder Dog Rescue, with Clara Grace quickly after she was discovered.
Wonder DogRescue
Beenau and an associate mostly usage Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to publish images and brief profiles of pets offered for adoption or cultivating. While Instagram is finest fit for smaller sized soundbites customized to a more youthful audience, Facebook posts with longer stories about offered animals and fundraising demands get the greatest action rate. Apps like Family PetFind er and WeRescue (both are complimentary on iOS and Android) are important tools, also.
Though Wonder Dog still posts pets by itself site and holds routine adoption occasions in the San Francisco Bay Area, both techniques need individuals to come to it. But Facebook acts as an efficient website by providing canine profiles straight into somebody’s feed, even as they’re taking a look at images from a buddy’s holiday.
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Watch this:
This pet cam can chase down your dog
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Social media “allows people to find dogs they want from anywhere,” Beenau says. “If they want to meet a specific dog that they saw online, then they’ll go to an adoption event.”
Rescue dogs, or dogs who are less likely to be adopted because of age or health issues, have benefited the most. Because most shelters focus their limited staff and resources on caring for and promoting the most adoptable animals, they can use Facebook to network with rescue organizations able to take on the harder cases.
That’s what happened with Clara. My husband found her profile and plea for fostering on Facebook in early July after liking Wonder Dog’s Facebook page. We picked her up the next day and couldn’t resist adopting her for good after a couple of weeks.
“Facebook has this immediacy,” Beenau says. “If someone posts a dog on our Facebook page, I may not be able to save it, but I can share it with one click.”
Still, Beenau says Wonder Dog is careful not to rely on social media too much. Not everyone who wants to adopt a dog uses it and the reach of a platform like Facebook can backfire. “If we bring in a desirable dog, especially certain purebred dogs or tiny and cute dogs, folks jump all over them.”
A broad reach
Olivia Melikhov, the director of social media strategy for the ASPCA, is part of a six-person team that monitors the organization’s social media accounts. She and Adams use Facebook (including Facebook Livestream), Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram not just to promote adoptable animals, but also for issue awareness, advocacy for legislation at the state and federal level (such as regulating puppy mills), donor outreach and fundraising. In 2018, the ASPCA raised $4.5 million through Facebook’s online tools.
CNET Social Media Producer Alexandra Able recently adopted her dog, Lisichka, from the Marin County Humane Society after seeing her profile on Facebook.
Alexandra Able
Facebook says that thousands of animal shelter and rescue groups on the platform use its fundraising tools. Many of the groups are dedicated to a specific region or dog breed.
“We know people care a lot about the pets in their lives and animals in need and want to help ensure they are happy and healthy,” said Paul Young, Facebook’s director of charitable giving partnerships. “We build fundraising tools and other features so that nonprofit organizations, such as animal shelters and rescue organizations can help as many animals as possible.”
Melikhov says each social media platform has distinct advantages. Like with Wonder Dog, Instagram is great for short stories about animals that encourage interaction. Facebook is better for full dog profiles, which can be easily shared, while Twitter gets short taglines and videos. (#FindYourFido is a Twitter hashtag the group uses to promote its campaign to encourage dog adoption from shelters.)
“A lot of people have soft spots for pets that have challenging stories and you can share those easily,” she says. “We try to be on as many channels as possible and we can do it from anywhere.”
On all platforms, though, the organization partners with celebrities and social media influencers to share its posts. For example, Patrick Stewart used Instagram last year to introduce Orson, a dog the ASPCA had rescued from a dogfighting ring, and Ricky Martin promoted the Find Your Fido program. And before social media took off, Sarah McLachlan’s weepy and meme-producing television commercials for the ASPCA in 2007Â raised roughly $30 million for the organization.
Rapid changes in how social platforms work, though, pose ongoing challenges for Melikhov and Adams. A year ago, Facebook overhauled its news feed to prioritize posts from family and friends and deemphasize those from brands and publishers.
View this post on Instagram
Here is the story of Clara Grace. Please scroll through the photos Back on a Sunday in February, Linda got an SOS about an elderly Boxer at the Fresno shelter that had come in as as stray. She was at death’s door, starving and on the euthanasia list at the shelter. We sent out the SOS for a foster and Nicole in Redding took her in. We took her to the doctor first, her liver levels were out of control and she did have some difficulty walking. We hoped for the best and sent her to her new foster home. She thrived there with Nicole and eventually was ready to come back to the Bay Area and be put up for adoption. She went to a foster in San Jose but the stairs in her home proved difficult and once again, an SOS was sent out. Eric and Kent in Oakland agreed to foster her and took her to her first adoption event where she did great. But because of her age, we decided that it should be her last public event and we would still promote her on SM and the website. Well now, we are happy to announce that Eric and Kent have decided to ADOPT Clara Grace and give her FUREVER home. She’ll be loved, spoiled and cared for in her senior years. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. #FOSTERINGSAVESLIVES #RESCUEWORKS #SENIORDOGSRULE #boxerlove #happyending #adoptaseniordog #fosteradog Thank you to all the fosters, the volunteers who helped transport her, the vets, the shelters that reach out and to everyone who helped this starving, street dog find her happy ending! Thank you!!!!!! Your donations allow us to save dogs like Clara. Thank you for anything you can give to help us SAVE LIVES. Thank you!!
“As a result, we’ve had to work even harder to develop extremely compelling content that is highly engaging in order to reach more of our audience,” Melikhov said. “Additionally, we have decreased the frequency of our posts and focus only on the most shareable content.”
Even so, she eagerly recommends Facebook to local shelters, which typically rely on volunteers and run on small budgets (the ASPCA also sponsors webinars to shelters on social media use). “It’s free,” Melikhov says. “If you don’t have money for advertising, you can still use it.”
Clara Grace isn’t on Facebook herself, but my own page (and more than a bit of my Twitter feed) is now devoted to photos of her. She still has trouble walking and she needs daily medication for pain and nerve damage, but she looks a hundred times better than the gaunt dog we found on Wonder Dog’s website. If she could like Facebook, I’m certain that she would.
Reporter Queenie Wong contributed to this story.
