Santa Monica DailyPress: Finding a Pet Just Went High-Tech
Filed under: Pets 911 - May 15, 2007
By Melody Hanatani
There’s more to watch on video Web sites like YouTube than footage of a hair-pulling catfight between two girls or a drunken David Hasselhoff eating his hamburger off the floor.
Animal shelters and pet adoption agencies across the country are tapping into the popularity of self-made online videos
made accessible through sites like YouTube and iFilm.
Adoption sites like Pets911.com have added a video feature to supplement pet profiles created by animal shelters, giving the
potential pet owner a glimpse of the dog or cat before they take a trip down to the pound.
“They say a picture is worth a thousand words … a video would have to be worth at least a million,” said Tracyann
Mains, program director for Pets911.
K9 Connection, an OPCC-run pilot program that brings at-risk teens together with pets from the Santa Monica Animal Shelter, has taken advantage of the YouTube craze, having produced several videos on some of the animals that were harder to adopt out.
“The impact of the video goes beyond just getting the dog adopted,” said Glen Zipper, project director for K9 Connection “It raises awareness for the organization.”
Zipper creates the videos for animals that have not received enough attention after staying at the shelter for more than a month.
The videos have been successful for some dogs, while others seem to be having a harder time getting out.
After being featured on CityTV and having a video on YouTube, Pinky the white pit bull was finally adopted last week after a stay in the Santa Monica Animal Shelter that lasted several months. Last month, the dog was sent to Zen4K9S under the care of dog psychologist Linn Boyke—who was trained by Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan—and Boyke fell in love with the pink-nosed dog, adopting it officially last week.
Pinky’s video had received about 600 hits.
Meanwhile, Karma was found lying on the 10 Freeway and spent almost a year at the Santa Monica Animal Shelter before
she was taken into a foster home. The dog did not adapt well to the environment and is now also hanging out with Boyke.
Karma’s video on YouTube is approaching 4,000 hits. It shows the 2-year-old dog—who, according to K9 Connection, is “not a big fan of cats”—lounging around outside, his tongue happily hanging out of its mouth.
Showing a dog playing with someone and staring right into the camera says more than a picture, and might be just
enough to motivate a potential dog owner to come down and meet the dog, Zipper said.
A Virtual Bond
The appeal of posting the video on YouTube is it not only gets hits from viewers who find the link through the K9
Connection Web site, but from pet lovers just browsing the popular site.
“We’re seeing more and more users share content, not just for entertainment value, but also for other practical means like pet adoption,” a YouTube spokesperson said on Monday. “Video is a very compelling and effective way to deliver a message.”
Pets911 launched its video feature on Friday and about 30 pet profiles now contain video attachments. The site works with up to 10,000 shelters across the country.
The videos highlight a would-be pet’s personality, allowing potential owners to forge an emotional bond with the pet over the Internet before they go in live to see the dog or the cat.
“These little guys and girls can’t speak for themselves.” Mains said. “We hope by giving them motion and letting people see them, their little personalities and how they interact with people would really paint a vivid picture with how they can fit in with other people’s lives.”
Still, there are detractors, like Melya Kaplan, executive director of Voice for the Animals, a Santa Monica-based pet
adoption agency. Kaplan hasn’t bought into the idea of capturing an animal’s personality through a video or picture.
Animals respond differently to different environments and people, Kaplan said.