Hard-to-Adopt Cats
Ninety-five percent of animal shelters in the US currently have cats they’d define as “hard to adopt”. While for the typical cat, it takes about 12 weeks to find a new home, it can take special needs cats, senior cats and black cats nearly four times as long. And the longer they’re in a shelter the grimmer it gets. Seventy percent of the 3.4 million cats put into US shelters each year are put down. Best Friends Lifesaving Center is a no-kill shelter that takes pets, including hard-to-adopt cats, from other shelters to save lives. Our objective was to help connect those cats with their perfect match to find them a forever home.
We set out to shorten the time to find them home by bringing attention to them in a beautiful way. They became the stars in our series of 30-second animations. We also celebrated the moment of connection between them and their potential human best friend. Then we invited the viewer to make a make a connection themselves, by finding their perfect match. In doing so we turned hard to adopt cats into easy to adopt cats.
Since the campaign launched Best Friends has had an increase in inquiries for hard-to-adopt cats, and has been commended by other shelters on the initiative. The lives they could potentially save are huge: Even a 10% increase in cat adoption rates would save 280,000 cat lives and enhance many human lives too.
Special Needs Cats
Senior Cats
Black Cats