1. Volunteering at an Animal Shelter Service Learning Project - Model

2. What is the issue? The neglect and mistreatment of pets

3. Why does this problem exist? Animals may go into a shelter because the family moves or the family situation changes - age, illness, financial hardship Sometimes the people didn’t realize how much work was involved in having an animal and weren’t prepared to change their lives to do all the work Sometimes the animal and family don’t work – issues with young children or no backyard Some people shouldn’t own animals

4. What I observed in doing my service animals come in to the shelter underfed or not having received proper medical attention animals who come in need to recover physically and emotionally It was really hard emotionally to see the animals suffering I felt overwhelmed I felt gratified at being able to help out I felt frustrated at the people who cause this problem

5. What is already being done to address this problem? Animal shelters provide medical care Rescue groups take in animals and place animals with a foster family until a forever family can be found Spaying/neutering is done to reduce number of unwanted animals There are a number of resources available that provide instructions on how to care for your pet: websites have questionnaires to match you to a pet that fits your lifestyle; infomercials and public service announcements. Rescue groups search Craigslist to pick up dogs so they can place them carefully with a family.

6. Proposed new business or service An iPhone/iPad app called “Fetch” It would be an RSS feed for rescue groups that gathers info about lost/abandoned animals from Craigslist postings, animal shelter adoption lists, Facebook groups, social media postings and local news sources The app would use your location to pull information that’s local to you An additional feature on the app could be to connect with other app users to create a regional and national network since sometimes people foster pets from other states.

7. What would be needed to execute this plan? Computer programmer who knew how to build an RSS feed Communication with rescue groups before the app is done to see if there’s anything they would want added Beta testing of the app Marketing the product through social media