I hope you all had a relaxing holiday season. Over the last few weeks, I took some time off and did something I try not to do too much: Web surfing.
I'm a major reader and I can kill hours reading online, so I try to keep my surfing to a minimum when I'm trying to get work done. Otherwise, I'd never get anything accomplished at all. It's a slippery slope. But since it was a holiday, I gave myself a little extra time to goof off and do some online reading ;-)
During my surf-a-thon, not surprisingly, I spent some quality time on a lot of humane-related blogs and Web sites. I read stuff from big humane organizations and small grass-roots groups as well.
One thing I will say is that the scary photos, name-calling, and hate-mongering on some blogs isn't doing the humane community any favors. I found sites with information on some great proactive adoption techniques, but the stories of these accomplishments are overshadowed by the endless nasty rhetoric against whoever the next Evil Bad Shelter happens to be that day.
That stuff just brings me down to the point that I have to close the browser. And let's face it, I'm a much more dedicated reader about this stuff than most people. If you wonder why the humane world gets such a bad rap, that's a big part of it.
I know I've said it before, but infighting among humane groups is not helping. If you don't like an organization, just shut up, and move on. Don't waste your energy trashing others at every opportunity. Build up your own organization instead of tearing down another. Lead by example.
Along those lines, I did find some bright spots in my surfing too. For example, the ASPCA Professional site (ASPCAPro.com) is vastly improved since the last time I spent much time there. At one point, the Pro site seemed like the "poor stepchild" of the main ASPCA site and was disorganized and confusing. Now, they've fixed the navigation and there are some great new resources. It has a fairly new "Shelter's Edge" blog and if you click around, you can find stuff on some of the interesting research they are doing. I was pleased to see they are on board with the Pledge for Humane Discourse too.
Another cool site is the Shelter Pet Project, which is a partnership between the Ad Council, The Humane Society of the United States, and Maddie’s Fund. It's filled with happy adoption stories and wonderful photos. Plus, how can you not like the tagline on the home page: "A person is the best thing to happen to a shelter pet. Be that person."
Not all the sites I looked at were backed by big humane organizations either. I did a radio show about a dog named Bonita with a group called PAWS Atlanta. I love their Web site! It has tons of information, a clean design, and great photos. It's not really that difficult to create this type of positive online public image. A lot of it is just about good organization and design.
We need MORE of these types of positive messages out there in cyberspace. Have you run across some great sites lately? Let me know and I'll share them.