BCSPCA Website: August 27, 2003

"Why Adoption and Not a Spay/Neuter Ad Campaign?

When Palmer Jarvis DDB offered to do pro bono ads for the SPCA they asked us what are biggest challenges were in terms of communication messages. We told them there were two primary issues that face shelter staff -- too many animals coming in and not enough people adopting them out.

Only about 17-20% of adopted animals are adopted out of animal shelters across North America. We want to change this so that the SPCA is the first place people think of when choosing to adopt.

Shelters have more animals than ever as SPCA policy changes in March of 2002 are such that we do not euthanize animals for lack of space. Currently no healthy, adoptable animals are euthanized. The result has been an increase in both the numbers of animals in our shelters and the length of time of their stay. This has put an enormous financial strain on the organization. If more animals are adopted, and people think SPCA first as a place to adopt we will help more animals.

Getting animals adopted swiftly makes space for more animals and lessens the stress on the animals kept in a shelter environment.

Yes, we still need to focus on spay/neuter but communities will tackle this issue much differently since a mass media media campaign has little effect on guardian's animals when they can't afford to have the procedure done or if the animals breeding are strays and have no guardian to bring them in to be sterilized. These issues will be dealt with by programming and comprehensive spay/neuter blitzes to reduce aggregate populations in areas of most need.

We know that the majority of responsible animal guardians are getting their animals spayed and neutered. What we are now seeing more and more, in urban areas especially, are not so much surplus animals from uncontrolled breeding but unwanted animals. These are animals that were either poorly matched with their guardian or they were animals that guardians couldn't keep -- because of not being able to find pet-friendly rental accommodation, moving, change in family dynamics and a host of other reasons. The spay/neuter message is a vital one that will be addressed but the message needs to be tailored to specific target audiences with support programs to ensure the animals are sterilized. Until the strategy and resources are in place we felt that a mass media campaign on adoption was an effective way to help with changing people's perceptions of where to adopt."