1. I NCREASING ADOPTION RATES AT ANIMAL SHELTERS Elizabeth Crowe HON 113 Dog With a Blog

2. A GENDA What’s been done at the Smithtown Animal Shelter It’s current limitations Current Use Case What Dog with a Blog Does Our Use Case Why Does it matter and what difference will it make? Cost of implementation, time for implementation and potential risks How we’ll measure for success

3. W HAT ’ S BEEN DONE AT THE S MITHTOWN ANIMAL SHELTER : Pictures of animals from the shelter are posted to Petfinder The pictures are aesthetically pleasing and make the animals look friendly. Some animals are given a short description of their personality within the picture Stressed Stony Brook University Students will be going to the shelter to interact with the animals

4. C URRENT LIMITATIONS The semi pro photography make the animals look very friendly and happy Stressed out Stony Brook students enjoy interacting with the dogs and the dogs gain social skills Pictures of the Dogs are posted to a third party server Those looking to adopt only get a generic description of the dogs Current formatting for more personal description looks cluttered Limited opportunity for growth StrengthsWeaknesses

5. C URRENT U SE C ASE Person wants a dog SBU Student is Stressed Hopefully does some research SBU Student reaches out to SBU community Goes Online to Petfinder to adopt a dog Goes to Visit Smithtown animal Shelter Sees Image of dog SBU student plays with Farrah Notices “Pit Bull” and decides not to adopt the dog Learns that Farrah loves to play fetch and gets along well with all other dogs Either looks for another dog to adopt or seeks a breeder/ pet shop Student gets an email from the dog asking the student to come back soon Dog is overlooked for adoption, animal shelter remains overcrowded Student may or may not remember to come back

6. W HAT D OG W ITH A B LOG D OES students could post on the shelter's site things about the dogs they interacted with, including the dog's playfulness or quirks. Hopefully, by having other people see these dog blogs, potential adopters will be more inclined to adopt a dog because they have easy access to an aesthetically pleasing picture of the dog and a day by day vignette of his or her personality.

7. D OG W ITH A B LOG U SE C ASE Person Wants a Dog SBU student is stressed Person Hopefully Does Some Research SBU student hears from friend about Dog With a Blog Goes online to the Smithtown Animal Shelter to Adopt a dog Student goes with friend to meet the dogs Sees image of a friendly dog with a vignette of the dog’s personality Student plays with Farrah and sees that she’s really great with other dogs Person sees that Farrah would be compatible with his/her dog, Chip Student posts on the dog’s blog that she really loves to play fetch with the other dogs Decides to visit Farrah at the animal Shelter Student remembers to come back because they posted the blog Person adopts Farrah Student feels good about helping Farrah get adopted, and can’t wait to play with Luke next time.

8. W HY D OES IT MATTER AND WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL IT MAKE ? Animal shelters are overburdened “About 2.7 million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs—about one every 11 seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year. Often these animals are the offspring of cherished family pets” (Humane Society, 2013). puppy mills pop out dogs at an abhorrent rate. “There are an estimated 15,000 puppy mills in the U.S. alone. In these mass-production factories, dogs are forced to produce litter after litter of puppies, supplying nearly 100 percent of the dogs sold in pet stores and directly to consumers online and through newspaper ads” (Animal Rescue Corp) By increasing awareness of good dogs for adoption, more people may choose to adopt rather than support the puppy mill industry. The Shelter will SAVE MONEY by increasing adoption rates.

9. T IME, C OST, AND P OTENTIAL R ISKS Once the SBU program for stressed students gets going, it should only take a few weeks to add the posting component to the site. The only cost will be that of adding a tech person to the site for this function, which still may be $0 if the shelter has a student volunteer his/ her time. The biggest risk is having students post damaging comments about the shelter or the dogs, but if the student is participating in the program, this risk is low. Student emotional attachment to the dog.

10. H OW T O M EASURE FOR S UCCESS Randomly Assign half the dogs to the Blog condition and the other half to the non- blog condition. Measure the adoption rates of each group If there is a statistically significant result, then it was a success

11. S UMMARY What Dog with a Blog is: an addition to a pre-existing program that aims to further increase adoption rates and provide SBU students with a fun activity that will increase community involvement and decrease stress. Strengths of current program: friendly pictures of the dogs, working with the University to have stressed students visit the dogs. Weaknesses of current program: third party server makes it more difficult for users to navigate through the site descriptions tend to be cluttered if even available What Dog with a Blog does: students post “dog blogs” that describe the dogs’ behavior over time directly on the Smithtown Shelter’s site. Why it matters: may help decrease the overpopulation of dogs in animal shelters. Cost: little to nothing check for success: traditional research methods

12. A NY Q UESTIONS ?

13. T HANK Y OU F OR Y OUR C ONSIDERATION

14. R EFERENCES The Humane Society of The United States. "Pet Overpopulation : The Humane Society of the United States." RSS. The Humane Society of The United States, 2013. Web. 05 Oct. 2013. www.petfinder.com http://www.smithtownny.gov/index.aspx?nid=47 5 Animal Rescue Corps. "Puppy Mills | Animal Rescue Corps." Animal Rescue Corps. ARC, 2013. Web. 05 Oct. 2013.