Hatter Michelle Marshall credits social media with helping facilitate adoptions of both her cats, Mango (left) and Nash, as profiles of each cat posted on social media prompted her to visit Medicine Hat's SPCA, meet with and eventually adopt the two cats.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
kking@medicinehatnews.com
Social media has become a valuable tool for pet adoption agencies in Medicine Hat and elsewhere across Canada to connect animals awaiting adoption with prospective owners.
“Social media is so prevalent in today’s life,” Linda Tooth, vice president of Medicine Hat SPCA’s board of directors, told the News. “Everybody’s on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, etc. So now, we’re doing a lot more with social media to try and get those adoptions going.”
While promoting has always been part of the SPCA’s operations, Tooth says social media has several benefits traditional means of promotion did not.
“Social media is instant,” she said. “People can take a look online, they don’t actually have to physically come into the shelter. But then, they’ve got time to research and find out what it is they’re looking for. And by doing their homework, it just helps reduce the possibility that they’re going to come back and return the animal they adopted.”
Tooth believes social media also allows prospective adopters to learn more about each animal than traditional forms of promotion.
“We do videos on (each animal available for adoption), and we interact with them so that (viewers) can see what this animal is all about,” she said.
Michelle Marshall, a longtime SPCA supporter and owner of local marketing company SGM Creative, agrees that social media is a useful tool in facilitating adoptions. Marshall, herself, adopted both her cats from the SPCA after seeing them featured on Facebook.
“I followed the SPCA page for the longest time and one day Mango (the cat) came up on their feed and I just fell in love with her,” said Marshall. “So that led me to go to the website, and (I did) a little more research and then I had to have a conversation with my husband and convince him that we needed more animals. And it was the same with Nash (the cat).”
Now with two furry friends, Marshall is no longer seeking to adopt, but continues to follow the SPCA’s social media accounts and encourages others to do the same.
“It’s a great way to show the transparency of what the SPCA is up to, what it does in the community, which animals are up for adoption, and to spread awareness through engagement,” Marshall said.
Other local adoption agencies have also found social media to be useful.
“We try to promote our (adoptable) pets as much as possible on social media, just to show them off,” APARC manager Steven Wolf said. “And we’ll use social media a lot for lost pets or even to trace the owners through. So, it’s a great tool.”
Wolf and his team at APARC were particularly overwhelmed by the response to one recent post, focused on Sky, a female budgie who had been in APARC’s care for more than 70 days and was growing depressed waiting to be adopted.
Within several hours of posting, Sky was adopted, and she now lives happily in her new home.
