Social Petworking: How social media is saving pet lives

Social networking has taken the internet by storm, and for good reason. Not only are these websites fun, they’re useful for connecting with friends and services in ways we never have before.

Have you seen my dog?
If you’ve ever experienced the terror of a missing pet, you’ll know that putting up ‘Lost Dog’ posters and checking the local pound was pretty much all you could do. But these days savvy pet owners are mobilizing the collective efforts of the Web to locate their missing companions and bring them home.

Take the story of Patch, the adventurous Jack Russell terrier who decided to satisfy his wanderlust by boarding an Irish Rail train without his owner. When the two-legged passengers brought Patch to railway staff, they published a photograph of the pooch on the company’s Twitter account, which went out to their 18,000 followers and was retweeted almost 500 times. Within 32 minutes, the dog’s owner was in touch with the station to claim the lost pup.

Social networking can also help reunite pets and owners following a natural disaster, as in the case of Oscar, a brindle boxer that went missing following a tornado in Texas in April. When Oscar’s owners saw the destroyed back fence and dog house, they feared the worst, but thanks to the collective efforts of Facebook, Oscar was back home within two days.

Need a pet-sitter?
Social networking can also take the guesswork out of finding services for your furry companion, like Spotwag, an online service to help you find a pet-sitter when you’re heading out of town. Instead of hiring a stranger, you can use your existing Facebook network to see if any of your friends are willing to volunteer for the task, without the awkwardness of having to ask outright.

Whenever you’re in need of a sitter, you post the dates of your trip and how you’re willing to compensate your friends: cash, karma or trade. Your offer then gets posted to both Spotwag and your social networks, and the replies are tracked by the service.

Send out an emergency call
The power of the Web is also being harnessed to help pets desperately seeking new homes to connect with owners who can give them the love and stability they need. Perhaps you’ve even used social networks to find a new furry addition for your own family.

A social media campaign has been credited with sparing the lives of more than 80 dogs that were scheduled to be put down because of shelter overcrowding in Fort Worth, Texas. When word got out of the pups’ grim fate, rescue groups began spreading the news on social networking sites and the huge upsurge in pet adoptions brought the shelter back down below capacity by the time the campaign was over.

Social networking also helped the Happy Valley-Goose Bay SPCA in Labrador, which was struggling to get dogs out to foster homes in Halifax. The shelter posted a plea on Facebook for a plane to carry the pets. The request was then forwarded through Twitter by one of their supporters, where it came to the attention of FedEx Canada. On July 14, the first trip of the “Labramushkadoodle Express” arrived safely in Halifax with 60 precious puppies aboard.

Credit photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net