Animal Welfare Professionals

I am a one person rescue who cannot get anyone in my community to adopt my kittens that I rescue and foster and Vet. Our community is inundated with free kittens all of the time. I have tried educating that free kittens are not free and can end up costing you $150-$250 in the first year of its life so a modest adoption fee is a great deal for a fully vetted kitten. Still people will not adopt. Plus there is a rescue that is giving away free kittens in my town. Sometimes they're partially vetted sometimes not. I have to beg rescues out of the area that have good adoption rates to take my kittens and I never know if I'm gonna be able to home them or not. It's insanely stressful, not knowing if I'm gonna be able to find homes for these kittens that I work with so hard. To the point where I am considering just quitting.

#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts

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Jill Jacobs
Director
The Blackie Bargeld Spay & Neuter Project
MO
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So sorry to hear about your struggle getting kittens adopted in your community, Jill. I don't know much about your organization or area, so not sure if my suggestions are feasible or anything you've tried before. However, here are some ideas:

1. Make sure your social media is up to date. (I wasn't able to access/find your Facebook page.) Post frequently and ask audience to share your posts.
2. Get a profile for yourself on LinkedIn to emphasize that you're a professional with experience.
3. Share informational literature either online or at local libraries/vet clinics/grocery store bulletin boards about the cost of free kittens (something like this infographic: https://forum.maddiesfund.org/discussion/the-true-cost-of-a-free-kitten?hlmlt=VT)
4. Hold the occasional free educational seminar about "free" kittens a/o TNVR services at a library or other place of public meeting.
5. Collaborate with other nearby rescues in your area (and maybe even outside of your community, if possible). 

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Stef Mates
Seminole County TNVR
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I also am not sure about your area, as it just says MO.  We ended up partnering with a Pet Sense in the next county over, to take our cats on a regular basis.  We have found that very few of our cats get adopted by people in our immediate area, but like the other responder suggested, having a good social media presence has been huge for us.  People drive a good distance to come see our cats.  We also have someone who does TikTok videos (she's young!) for us frequently.  Reach out to local teens to see if any of them need volunteer hours, and ask them to come do videos for you.  Exposure is key.

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Carol Williams
aralliancega.com
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