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Print This StoryDoes Dog Have A New Best Friend?
50 Local Organizations Use Petfinder.com
A dog may be man's best friend but it looks like the Internet is dog's best friend.
Animal shelters and rescue groups are using the web to reach out to possible owners, and it's working.
Shelters have always seen visibility as their best friend. And where better to do that than on the biggest bulletin board in the world?
"Based on the number of hits we get on our web site we know that people are looking," Mary Paul Long of the Dane County Humane Society said.
Dane County's humane society now takes a digital photo of every animal that comes in and posts it right away on the shelter's searchable Internet directory of adoption candidates.
"We have had people call from across the country who were interested in a particular animal and asking what kind of accommodations need to be made," Long said. "It's really cool."
Pet adoption web sites are really catching on.
There are now national online adoption directories.
Petfinder.com lets you search for a friend by breed, location and size. And the free service helps place an estimated 400,000 animals a year.
"It means that they can get a home that they really deserve to have," Laura Everson of Mt. Horeb's Border Collie Rescue said.
It meant just that for four of Everson's border collies -- several at Madison's American Eskimo Rescue, too.
Rescue leaders say those searching the pet net make top dog owners.
"They've either owned the breed before or they know about it," Sarah Kalnajs of American Eskimo Rescue said. "They've done the research ahead of time in order to go on petfinder.com and know what they're looking for."
There are about 50 local organizations participating in the pet finder service, but be sure to check your local shelter's web site too.
Dane County, for example, only lists its animals on its own site.
Online Resources:
Animal shelters and rescue groups are using the web to reach out to possible owners, and it's working.
Shelters have always seen visibility as their best friend. And where better to do that than on the biggest bulletin board in the world?
"Based on the number of hits we get on our web site we know that people are looking," Mary Paul Long of the Dane County Humane Society said.
Dane County's humane society now takes a digital photo of every animal that comes in and posts it right away on the shelter's searchable Internet directory of adoption candidates.
"We have had people call from across the country who were interested in a particular animal and asking what kind of accommodations need to be made," Long said. "It's really cool."
Pet adoption web sites are really catching on.
There are now national online adoption directories.
Petfinder.com lets you search for a friend by breed, location and size. And the free service helps place an estimated 400,000 animals a year.
"It means that they can get a home that they really deserve to have," Laura Everson of Mt. Horeb's Border Collie Rescue said.
It meant just that for four of Everson's border collies -- several at Madison's American Eskimo Rescue, too.
Rescue leaders say those searching the pet net make top dog owners.
"They've either owned the breed before or they know about it," Sarah Kalnajs of American Eskimo Rescue said. "They've done the research ahead of time in order to go on petfinder.com and know what they're looking for."
There are about 50 local organizations participating in the pet finder service, but be sure to check your local shelter's web site too.
Dane County, for example, only lists its animals on its own site.
Online Resources:
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