If you want to know how thousands of Facebook users use their status updates to bring change, do a quick search on Facebook for “dog rescue” or “dog rescued”. You’ll see tons of people who are posting about dogs who need to be rescued before tomorrow. There are numerous animals put to sleep every day because there are more animals than people to adopt them. As such, Facebook users are rushing to share information about dogs who are going to be euthanized in the immediate future.
Given that we talk so frequently about how to use Facebook it’s easy to forget that Facebook is about the modern human experience. That’s why it’s not to surprising to see so many users attached to animals and actively fighting to rescue them. In the short time it has taken to write this article, I’ve seen at least 20 people share about dogs who are at risk of being put to sleep in the near future. In addition to the dogs that people are trying to have rescued, there’s also a viral message going around about dogs that are bred to fight.
After telling a story from the perspective of the dog, it asks users to donate to a Veterinary Hospital and includes a Paypal link, however we can’t verify what that actually links to. Regardless, it’s pretty clear that Facebook users care deeply about their dogs, and that’s why they want to rescue them. Many of the postings link back to a site called petfinder.com which is a listing of all the animals that are available for adoption.
If you want to see all the dog rescue posts that are being shared on Facebook, just follow this link.
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Not only dogs but cats and other animal rescues, as well as getting terrific support for petitions and animal activism. Personally, I wouldn't have been able to find the support to save cats and kittens from being killed via any other avenue. The people who have joined my FB rescue group have supported me through chip-ins, via direct payments to vets or by sponsoring through Animal Controls. It's great to be able to keep up with the cats and kittens that are rescued through subsequent FB friendships too.
Comment by Suszan Rogers — August 22, 2010 @ 7:22 pm
i think all who harm animals should suffer the punishment like come onguys
Comment by megan butkiewicus — August 22, 2010 @ 7:30 pm
We started our advocacy group for animals on Facbook, we have many friends in rescue and in the shelter community as well as transport and advocacy…social networking brings us all together for something that is bigger than just us!
Comment by Shanyn — August 22, 2010 @ 8:00 pm
Hi Nick.
Thanks for covering such an important topic. I just voluntarily took over the facebook page of a small organisation (carefordogs.org) in Thailand. Fyi… The situation about street dogs in Thailand is horrific. These people are doing a great job and Facebook is a powerful tool to communicate with locals and bring attention to the organisation in global terms in general.
It's slowly picking up. I set myself the goal to generate 1.000 Fans until end of the year. I am sure once a critical mass is reached it will be a nice channel to place adoptions and doing fundraising.
We actually already had the case where people from overseas adopted street dogs. In that case we arrange the travel document and travel procedure which works nicely.
Please visit: http://www.facebook.com/street.dog.rescue
Thanks
Sven
Comment by Sven Ernst — August 22, 2010 @ 9:29 pm
FB was about the modern COLLEGE experience and it should have damn well stayed that way. These status updates are spam. As stupid and hoaxy as the fake "amber alert" garbage that people are too stupid to research by entering the fake license plate # into google.
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Yeah, status updates change squat. Look at all the updates complaining about privacy, and yet nothing.
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Don't follow any damn paypal links or believe any of the crap floating around FB nowadays. Back in the good ol days of '04-'05 you could, but not now.
Comment by Guest — August 23, 2010 @ 1:50 am