The long version
I was ringing around the local shelters today, trying to find a friend for my girl Professor. I was appalled to hear from one particular large shelter, that they "get them all the time" and "no-one ever wants them". The lady was almost pathetically excited that I was looking for a pig and rushed to get my contact details if a girl came in.
I hung up pretty upset at this. And got to thinking... surely I can help this situation a little.
So what I've decided to do is whatever I can online to get the adoption rate up for the local (Melbourne Australia) shelters, and on the side, educate a little. I've decided to restrict it to just local and just GP's for a few reasons:
1. There is very little on GP's or GP adoption in Australia that I have found (links anyone?)
2. Being local, I can liase and even go and take photos etc myself if needs be
3. Restrictions on my time and money means I can't take on a huge task such as all of Australia ATM.
The situation is very grim here for pigs. They just don't get what they deserve on the net. If you Google on "guinea pig adoption australia" you are faced with a very large task indeed in finding some useful links, let alone a pig to adopt.
Here's an example: have a look at
https://www.gpan.net/listings/Australia.html to see the general online adoption situation in Australia... very few to be adopted, rather messages from people that are looking for pigs to adopt! Compare that to the US listing for example and there are heaps of listings for piggies.
Here is the "adoption" page from that shelter I was talking to: (broken link removed). Not much good for piggies... I rang them back and spoke to the lady responsible for volunteer work and offered my IT skills, that I could help them set up a better online system to get more adoptions happening. She didn't know what I was talking about... however I am seeing her on Tuesday to see if I can help them personally.
So, I was wondering if you dear piggie lovers could share some thoughts. What I want is to have a page that will be highly visible for any Victorians searching for a pig to adopt. Google placement being the first port of call. Any feedback from you on keywords, places on the net you try first, What format you like adoption pages to be in, etc etc. Any Australians in particular, let me know of existing good resources I can link to or liase with. And those who have or are running adoption related pages on the web, I would love some info on what or what has not worked for you in your online campaigns.
As a side note, this is NOT something I want to or ever will want to make money from, and that my education side of it will reflect and link to the exemplary info of such as Cavy Cages and GuineaLinx.
Cheers
Rob
