Animal Welfare Professionals

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  • 1.  Maddie's Insights webcast May 8, 2025: Exploring Factors That Influence Public Engagement of Adoptable Pets on Social Media

    Posted 04-07-2025 02:09 PM

    Updated May 9, 2025 at 2:45pm PT: Recording now available to watch on-demand!

    Maddie's® Insights is our ongoing webcast series with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. Our guest speaker for the May 8th program is @Rachel Morrison, PhD, Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

    We hope you can join us on Thursday, May 8th at 12n Pacific / 2p Central / 3p Eastern for a one-hour webcast. It will be recorded.

    REGISTER HERE https://maddies.fund/MIwebcastsRegister  

    This webcast explores how social media content influences engagement with posts about adoptable animals. It highlights findings from a study analyzing Facebook posts from rural shelters, examining how features like photo style, video content, text tone, and animal type impact likes and shares. The study also compares pre-pandemic (2019) and post-pandemic (2020) data, revealing that 2019 posts received more likes, while 2020 posts were shared more. Results suggest that both the type of animal and its depicted environment affect engagement, although further research is needed to link post content directly to adoption rates.

    Attendees will learn about:

    1.     the online promotion of adoptable animals and the features that have previously been linked to increased adoptions

    2.     using social media platforms to increase public engagement of adoptable animals. Specifically, what features of post content may have an influence

    3.     questions that have yet to be answered. Topics of future exploration will be suggested.   

    Earn continuing education credit from The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement towards 1.0 CAWA CEs. This webinar has also been pre-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). It has also been approved for 1 hour of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval. Complete the quiz to earn continuing education credit. 

    About the speaker
    Rachel Morrison, PhD,
    Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke

    Dr. Rachel Morrison and her dog

     

    Dr. Rachel Morrison received her B.S. in Biology with a concentration in animal biology and a minor in Psychology from Grand Valley State University (Allendale, MI). She received her M.A. in Psychology with a certification in Animal Behavior and Conservation from Hunter College of CUNY and her Ph.D. in Psychology with a concentration in Biopsychology from The Graduate Center of CUNY (New York, NY). Dr. Morrison is currently an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where she teaches Introductory Psychology, Research Methodology, Animal Cognition and Behavior, and Biopsychology.

    Dr. Morrison's research interests include animal behavior, animal cognition, animal welfare, and human-animal relationships. She has conducted research with diverse species in multiple locations and contexts including field research, lab studies, and studies of animals housed in zoological (e.g., whispering in cotton-top tamarin monkeys) and aquarium (e.g., the development of mirror self-recognition in bottlenose dolphins) settings. In addition, Dr. Morrison has investigated factors that influence college students' attitudes towards animal use and the relationship between pro-welfare attitudes and perceptions of animal thinking, as well as links between college student pet attachment and the quality of care given to pets. More recently she has explored the use of social media (i.e., Facebook) by local animal shelters to promote adoptable animals and the impact of a miniature horse-assisted intervention on college student mood and optimism.

     


    #Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts
    #EducationandTraining

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    Alison Gibson
    Media Projects Manager
    Maddie's Fund
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  • 2.  RE: Maddie's Insights webcast May 8, 2025: Exploring Factors That Influence Public Engagement of Adoptable Pets on Social Media

    Posted 9 days ago
      |   view attached

    Hi everyone,

    Here's the slides for Dr. Morrison's presentation!



    ------------------------------
    Sheila Segurson, DVM, DACVB
    Board Certified Veterinary Behaviorist
    Director of Shelter Solutions
    Maddie's Fund
    Pleasanton CA
    9258608284
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Maddie's Insights webcast May 8, 2025: Exploring Factors That Influence Public Engagement of Adoptable Pets on Social Media

    Posted 9 days ago

    Hi Everyone! 

    Thank you for attending my Maddie's® Insights Webcast today. Please feel free to type any questions you may have about today's presentation in this discussion board. 

    Best,

    Dr. Morrison

    __________________________________________________________

    Rachel Morrison, Ph.D. (she/her)

    Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

    University of North Carolina at Pembroke

    www.uncp.edu I rachel.morrison@uncp.edu



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    Rachel Morrison
    Associate Professor
    University of North Carolina at Pembroke
    NC
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Maddie's Insights webcast May 8, 2025: Exploring Factors That Influence Public Engagement of Adoptable Pets on Social Media

    Posted 9 days ago

    Hi Everyone,

    Thank you for viewing my Maddie's® Insights Webcast today! If you have any questions about the webcast, please type them in the discussion board.



    ------------------------------
    Rachel Morrison
    Associate Professor
    University of North Carolina at Pembroke
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Maddie's Insights webcast May 8, 2025: Exploring Factors That Influence Public Engagement of Adoptable Pets on Social Media

    Posted 8 days ago

    Hi! Will the webinar recording be available to share with colleagues?



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    Beth Brookhouser
    VP Marketing and Communications
    SPCA Monterey County
    CA
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  • 6.  RE: Maddie's Insights webcast May 8, 2025: Exploring Factors That Influence Public Engagement of Adoptable Pets on Social Media

    Posted 8 days ago

    Hi Beth,

    The slides from the presentation were previously shared by Sheila Segurson yesterday, so you should see them earlier in the discussion thread. As for viewing the recording, I know it will be available to view in the Maddie's Insights Webcast series for those who sign in and register for it. I am not sure how long it takes for the recording to be uploaded. @Sheila Segurson (she/her), do you know when the recording will be available?



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    Rachel Morrison
    Associate Professor
    University of North Carolina at Pembroke
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Maddie's Insights webcast May 8, 2025: Exploring Factors That Influence Public Engagement of Adoptable Pets on Social Media

    Posted 3 days ago

    Hi Everyone,

    Someone had asked that I post links to some posts that I thought were good examples of how to best use Facebook for promotion. I chose the following posts because I feel they do a good job describing facts about the animal, they have included good pictures, and you will see that they update the posts when animals are adopted or rescued.

    https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1098183385687198&id=100064866391097&rdid=8Gx0AV4jWq1qJoXA

    https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1094258542746349&id=100064866391097&rdid=gDX1ydkr16GgUoRB

    https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1089699373202266&id=100064866391097&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=t22X8gLq3s2m2Gy8

    https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1088178673354336&id=100064866391097&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=Rbf7rEai1dV5CXIL

    https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1059089769596560&id=100064866391097&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=OSGPmE5XMZu2KazJ



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    Rachel Morrison
    Associate Professor
    University of North Carolina at Pembroke
    ------------------------------