WHAT'S NEW?

SITE OF THE WEEK

They have a new building and now a new web site. Seacoast pets are doing well. Who would think there would come a time when we could pick out a cat or dog or horse or rabbit off the Internet?

VISIT the NHSPCA web site

Promise you won't laugh. Last week we took our cat to see Santa. She whined a bit in the cat carrier in the car. But over all, we think it was an enriching experience -- one she will remember for at least 10 minutes. Kitty (that's her name) followed four Chihuahuas and a pair of Cocker Spaniels, but the well-oiled process NHSPCA fundraiser was trauma-free. That’s the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but we think of it as "the place with all the animals."

Kitty was cool. We waited in isolation until the dogs were well out of range. She allowed a rotund human swathed in fake fur to hold her for a formal portrait. She looked directly into the lens when the photographer from Memories Studio squeaked a rubber mouse and snapped the shutter. Then she stalked the room while the cameraman showed us the picture that will adorn our upcoming Christmas cards. We could have ordered the photo emblazoned on mouse pads, T-shirts and coffee mugs too – but we don’t want Kitty to get a swelled head.

We owe this family memory to the NHSPCA web site. We're thinking of becoming a two-cat family, or maybe a cat-and-dog family. Either way, the wife has gotten into the habit of checking the animal shelter web sites frequently, scanning the photos and info on the latest pets up for adoption. She saw the Santa photo fundraiser event posted on the homepage recently.

"Can we?" the wife asked, which is her unique way of saying, "Get in the car, we're going to the animal shelter." So Kitty and I complied.

Those who haven't seen the new $3.2 million SPCA facility in Stratham should not delay. The pet adoption process has never been less stressful. Visitors can wander through a number of "home rooms" inside the shelter. While tiny mammals, birds and most large dogs are still caged, many cats and dogs are accessible to the public. It is now possible to see an animal on the web site and visit that animal directly, without contacting a human being. This promotes more connection between pets and adoptive families, and frees up staff and volunteers for other tasks. This year 3,500 animals, from horses to lizards, will be adopted in Stratham, many a direct result of the web site. That's 500 more than last year, and the numbers are climbing.

"People think of us as an animal organization, but this is really a human service too. That’s my personal opinion," says Virginia MacDonald, director of marketing and development at the Stratham SPCA. "Animals are not disposable,". "But in the region, we're allowing fewer and fewer places for animals to live and for people to take their pets. That's why we are taking more animals in than ever before."

And, thanks largely to the Web and their new streamlined facility, finding homes for more animals than ever before.

NHspca.org is pretty much an in-house project. MacDonald says that an appealing, up-to-date web site was among her highest priorities.

"When I came on board two years ago it was my goal to revamp a very static web site. It just kind of sat there. That was one of the first projects I took on," she says.

Job well done. Click on the cat and see the latest cats up for adoption. Click on the bunny, see small animals, or the dog image for dogs. Combined with postings on the Cochecho Humane Society web site in Dover (www.cochecovalleyhumanesoc.org) locals can quickly see dozens of adoptable animals in seconds from their home computers. It’s a far cry from Pet of the Week in the local newspapers, that leads to a slew of response to a single featured animal.

With help from volunteer Tim Guttman, MacDonal purchased Dreamweaver and they went to work revising the web site, an investment of time over dollars. Today Mary Ann Wells of WebKare in Strataham lends a hand. Harbour Light of Portsmouth provides pro bono hosting.

"It’s a better way to give a wide representation of what we have," MacDonal says. "It also allows people to think before they come in and impulse-adopt."

That’s part of the problem. So much of pet adoption, especially with young children, happens in a sudden burst of emotion. But love at first sight can turn sour once the animal comes home. MacDonald hopes the cyber experience will allow families the opportunity to plan and to discuss the responsibilities of pet ownership before the little fuzzy thing moves in.

MacDonald and company have created a "breakout" web site, rare among nonprofit agencies. It is not a rigidly specialized site, but one with universal appeal. By keeping the online pet adoption data current, the site -- like the Stratham facility -- is worth visiting again and again. Repeat traffic is a key goal of most web developers and extremely difficult to maintain in the nonprofit field.

The trick now, is for NHSPCA to make the most of the momentum. That means the organization itself has to see the Web as a "real" marketing tool, not just a little enhancement to an existing development structure. It takes a ton of money to train and staff an organization like this, money to house and care for unwanted pets, to work towards prevention of animal cruelty.

The Web can help in all those areas – with online education, interactive training, volunteer sign-up, reporting animal offenses, teaching preventive strategies, telling local stories, soliciting local dollars. And it can support and expand existing programs – like the Santa photo thing we attended, the annual fundraising auction, and so on.

I think there's even more value here. These high traffic pages should easily attract advertisers. Pet supply companies, veterinarians, and kennels should jump at the chance to sponsor updated pet adoption pages. MacDonald says updates have recently increased from once to twice her week. Her goal is to add new animals and remove the adopted ones from the web site every two days.

MacDonald even has higher hopes for an expanded "Lost and Found" section where visitors can post info and images of missing pets. Lost animals, she says, can travel great distances, often ending up in neighboring shelters far from home. Posting that data requires daily updating, something not quite possible yet at NH SPCA.

"Marketing is a difficult animal," MacDonald says using the most available metaphor. "So far the only positive impact we can document from the web site is adoption."

But the Web is an animal that needs to be tamed. With their state-of-the-art Adoption Center completed, NHSPCA is working on new barns for horses and large animals. Then there is the Learning Center that will occupy the site of the old animal shelter. Everything is going to cost money, and the web site is going to have to learn a few new money-making tricks.