Cats, cars and cupcakes
Driving change for animals?
Today is National Cat Day. I didn’t know that until I got up and read the news this morning. It goes without saying that I’m a big animal lover, so when I saw that uber had teamed up with icanhascheezburger and local shelters to deliver kittens for a snuggle and possible adoption, I was pretty excited. (As an added incentive, there was a cupcake, though it wasn’t vegan). We just lost our beloved cat to cancer and I’ve been really missing cat snuggles. Sadly,today’s promotions wasn’t an option for my location, but I considered it.
I did wonder what the kittens might think of the whole thing, but the post said that shelter reps would be involved and the cats would be safe. I saw that some animal advocates raised questions about possible risks and concerns. It’s definitely something that deserves careful consideration. I wanted to share my take on it — not just as someone who loves cats — but as a scientist who specializes in how animals cope with change and stress. To my way of thinking, there is always some risk, but this particular effort comes out on the plus side.
Here’s the scoop:
Do animals awaiting adoption in shelters or at a mobile adoption events experience stress? Many will.
Can it be managed or mitigated? Some of the time for some individuals. Not always. Not for everyone.
So yes. We are talking about some non-zero risk for stress.
Would the stress from this particular event (or any comparable mobile adoption event) be worse than never finding a forever home or being euthanized? In my opinion, no. In fact, could be far better than those absolutely dreadful outcomes. It just might be how they end up becoming part of a family.
This is a one-day promotion that lasts a few hours — pretty comparable to a mobile adoption event in my mind, except with a focused and qualified audience. People who use uber have the funds to adopt and take care of a cat. I’m guessing people who use uber AND are interested in this promotion are far more likely to be cat lovers who would adopt than the random person on the street, at a park, shopping mall or other place where an off-site adoption event might be held.
So what’s the net-net from a animal perspective? Here’s what I think would happen if someone says yes to this offer: They have donated $20 to an animal charity, are in direct contact with the humane society and their mission, and have met a kitten who they might totally fall in love with or otherwise inspire them to find a cat who would be a great addition to their family. Maybe they just pet the kittens and eat the cupcake in the end and the net impact is the donation. The key for the organizations involved will be to look at the outcomes.
If we want fewer animals to be homeless and more animals to be adopted, we have to look for new ways to incentivize and facilitate the change we want and to try those new ways. Not all of them will be winners, but some will. Maybe uber’s promotion with the shelters is one of them.
When it comes to tough issues like pet overpopulation and homeless pets, finding the winners really matters. It matters for the animals (in this case the kitties), for animal charities and for animal lovers, too. If we really mean it when we say we want to make the world a better place for animals, we can’t just imagine that better future. We have to deliver on that ideal— kind of like uber is delivering kittens.
We can’t just deliver though. We have to be smart about what we do for animals. Obviously, we want to find the smart, creative ideas that could be winners. That’s not all, though. We also have to collect data about what we try so we can dump the duds, do more of what works and get better at doing those things. Some examples of organizations that take this kind of approach and do it very well are are ASPCA and the Found Animals Foundation
I’d love to hear from the shelters (and uber and icanhascheezburger) how this works out. If uberkittens was a winner, I’d also love to hear what could make it even better next time around, especially for the kitties.
