The title of this post refers to one of the new websites I setup last month. Dogs for sale in Perth lists only rescue dogs but targets people who haven’t already decided to adopt.
Three common ways a dog leaves an Australian pound or shelter (approx rates based on Victorian data):
- Reclaimed by owner (~50%)
- Adopted by a new owner (~25%)
- Killed by pound/shelter (~25%)
At present we aren’t doing a great job of finding new homes for dogs. Claims that there are too many dogs being bred are baseless. Australians owned 3.41 million dogs in 2009 and the reality is that with an average lifespan of 10 years we need almost 1000 dogs a day just to maintain a stable population. We need to do a better job of finding new homes for these dogs.
An important part of increasing adoptions is outreach. Rather than preaching to the choir we need to find people looking to bring a new pet into their lives who may not have considered adoption. Some people have misconceptions about rescue dogs all being damaged. Some think they want a puppy. Others just don’t know where to look. We can inform them but first we have to find them. Fortunately the Internet makes that easier than it’s ever been before.
It’s unusual to see the term dogs for sale applied to shelter dogs but this is what many people looking to buy a dog type into search engines. Until recently these sorts of searches have only been bringing up breeders and online classified. Dogs for sale in Perth is designed to direct people to Perth shelters and rescue groups. The same principle has been applied to Dogs for sale in Melbourne, Dogs Tasmania, Dogs for sale in Geelong, and Dogs Canberra. The sites show images of available dogs (like the one below) that link through to the adoption pages for the shelter or rescue group.
Dogs Refuge Home, Perth
If we want to improve things for our dogs for sale we need to be creative, positive and innovative. You can help us improve our ranking in search engines by linking to Dogs for sale in Perth, Dogs for Sale in Geelong and Dogs for sale in Melbourne.
barbara van cleve says: 
