SpayCalifornia.org
Organization Information:
- Organization Name:
- Actors & Others for Animals
- City & State:
- North Hollywood,
- California
- Organization Website:
- http://actorsandothers.org/
- Organization's Mission Statement
- To eliminate pet overpopulation, ensure the care and protection of pet companions and improve the quality of life for economically challenged, disadvantaged and underserved pet guardians by providing referral and financial assistance for spay/neuter and veterinary medical procedures together with other animal/human bond enriching programs.
Submission Information
- Impact Essay
- At Actors and Others for Animals (A&O) we believe that pet overpopulation is the greatest causal factor of cruelty because it labels animals as disposable and recognize that stopping the birth cycle is the cure. While spaying/neutering is commonplace today and required by law in many jurisdictions the cost has risen dramatically and affordability decreased considerably. Recognizing that pet overpopulation is in great part rooted in a lack of education about the availability of services, A&O launched SpayCalifornia, as a state-wide referral service. Our dream was to create a simple website where pet guardians could locate affordable spay/neuter services in all 58 counties of California. For those without internet service or for more complex situations, a toll free telephone line would also be available. Such a wide-ranging task can be daunting for any organization, but when starting from scratch with only one person to do it all, it is intimidating. But our dream became a reality due primarily to the aptly named Adobe Dreamweaver cs3 software purchased from TechSoup. It’s the perfect partner for us because it is easy to use, has a fantastic feature that updates links automatically, and makes it a breeze to update veterinary rates on multiple or just a single page at a time. Recruiting veterinarians began by concentrating on the most “in demand” counties first such as Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino and as these databases were completed the website was unveiled. With the use of Dreamweaver cs3 these databases were expanded on effortlessly and as use of the website increased, more time became available to continue to build up the databases. We launched the website in July of 2008, and it immediately averaged approximately 62 unique users a day (those that went past the main explanatory pages and actually accessed the veterinarian information). By December, 2008 it was 93 per day and by February, 2009 it was averaging 152 unique users a day and being bookmarked by 62-66%. The increase in the number of referrals rose from 1,200 per month to 4,650. Dreamweaver cs3 has allowed A&O to affordably maintain SpayCalifornia, provide 24/7 exposure and help pet guardians over our entire State with only one employee. (This is in contrast to our separate telephone subsidy programs run by four employees.) Our website, built with the use of Dreamweaver cs3, has also had a cascading impact that has attracted the attention of other animal welfare organizations, animal control agencies and pet-related periodicals to advertise our services and attracted veterinarians to actually seek us out for inclusion on our site. Online contributions have also increased. A&O’s objective is to sustain and increase the awareness and use of our resources, and Dreamweaver cs3 has given us the tools to do just that effortlessly, efficiently and exponentially. Each user who has his/her pet sterilized because they visited SpayCalifornia.org means that an untold number of puppies and kittens will not be born and ultimately euthanized. Bottom line for us, Dreamweaver cs3 is a lifesaver! ***website must be viewed using Internet Explorer.
- Submission Category
- Environmental Impact Other Media
- Project Image
- logospaycalifornia.jpg
