|
BACKGROUND:
According to The Humane Society of the United States and Maddie's
Fund, of the eight million pets that enter animal shelters
and rescue groups every year, approximately three million
of these healthy and treatable pets are euthanized due to
a lack of adoption. While there has been steady progress on
the issue (in the 1970s approximately 24 million pets were
euthanized), the continued euthanasia of our best friends
and family members is a national tragedy.
Adopting a pet is a life-changing and enriching experience.
When adopting a pet, people are obtaining companions that
give them unconditional love, affection, and attention. Adopting
a pet from a shelter not only saves an animal's life, but
is also good for our own well-being as research shows that
owning a pet has many positive psychological and physical
health benefits. The animals rescued from shelters know you've
saved their lives, and they typically treat their rescuers
with lifelong loyalty and affection.
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES:
- To eliminate the stereotype that there's something wrong
with shelter pets.
- To make shelters the first choice and desired way for acquiring
a companion animal, ultimately increasing the rate of animals
adopted from shelters.
- To encourage the target to visit
www.theshelterpetproject.org
,
to find out more information about how to adopt a pet from
a shelter. The Website also includes a "Pet Personals"
section, where users fill out a questionnaire and are then
matched with potential pets from a local shelter or rescue
group.
TARGET AUDIENCE:
- Primary: The "Swing Voter." These are the approximately
17 million individuals who will be acquiring a pet within
the next year, but remain undecided on where they will acquire
their pet from.
- Secondary: Pro-adoption advocates.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Each year approximately 4 million pets are adopted.
- Of the 8 million pets that enter animal shelters each year,
approximately 3 million healthy and treatable pets are euthanized.
- It is estimated that 17 million people will acquire a pet
within the next year.
- To save all the healthy and treatable pets that are euthanized,
we just need 3 million of these people to adopt.
- In its 60 year history this is the first non-human focused
issue that the Ad Council has worked on.
|
