So our city shelter, for the first time in it's history, participated in a well known No Kill event called Empty the Shelter Day. The goal for participating shelters is to empty the shelter through adoption. This particular event got lots of general media attention and I was thrilled when I saw we were one of the shelters participating.
However, I quickly became disappointed from the lack of marketing effort set forth by our city as well as the unexpected amount of cats that were actually up for adoption the day of the event.
While I realize that our city runs on a budget and that budget can dictate our marketing efforts, it gives no excuse as to why we were not promoting the event more aggressively with the opportunities we have available to us. They never listed the event in our utility bill that would have been seen by ALL our residents, even though events like the Bluegrass on Ballard gets it's own flyer sent out with the utility bill. But I guess that's because that event can make money for the city whereas our animals in need are just an obligation. The kiosk that can be seen from the street in front of our rec center only listed the event approx. 3 days before, even though our own press release about the event was sent out 2 weeks prior.
