FiXiT is a big fan of Ellen DeGeneres’ devotion to animals. Last year we tried to catch her attention by creating a video with lots of young ladies in Ellen masks – requesting her to mention GetYourFix.org for World Spay Day. (see below)
This year we are again trying to capture her attention. Next week our co-founder, Stephanie, and a group of FiXiT volunteers will be attending the show. We need your help to let her know that we will be there and give GetYourFix.org – FiXiT’s program that is currently offering FREE pit bull terrier fixes to those that qualify – a shout out.
To accomplish this, we need YOUR HELP!
Most celebrities (and their entourage) keep an eye on their twitter feed (follow Ellen’s Show). We need to make a big impact with our #GetYourFixEllen campaign to let them know what GetYourFix is all about and that we will be in the audience next week. Therefore, starting now we will be posting tweets @TheEllenShow – many times a day for the next week. Please join us on Twitter and retweet as many of these posts as possible.
Many will include photos of animals with a sign “Ellen – GetYourFix,” as we requested from people on Facebook. However, we would be STOKED if you want to add your own animal with a sign to these posts for an extra personal tweet.
We want you to get the lastest on FiXiT and companion animals. If you are new to Twitter, here are a few resources that will get you up and tweeting in no time!
This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and FiXiT is now offering the perfect present for the woman who has always been there for you – our NEW Gift a FiX Sponsorship! Previously, we provided a Gift a Fix option that provided FiXiT a donation in honor of your gift recipient to support our programs that are providing new solutions for ending the companion animal overpopulation crisis.
NOW, we have started a whole new ball game. We have updated our donation page AND provide an instant unique coupon code to you and your gift recipient via email. Just go to our new donation page, click on the GIFT A FIX tab, and then check on the “Give your special someone a GetYourFix Sponsorship” box. You will also be directed to a page with printable gift cards, where you can write a special note and include the gift coupon code, if you prefer.
With this code, your special someone can go to GetYourFix.org and CHOOSE the animal that they want to get fixed! Within minutes, your gift recipient could have an animal in need on its way to getting a fix and ending a constant cycle of unwanted breeding.
Just like on GetYourFix.org, a sponsorship costs $100, but the GetYourFix team will handle all of the details. We will contact the animal’s owner, help choose a clinic and set up an appointment, and then on the day of surgery provide payment to get the animal spayed or neutered. We will give your gift recipient ongoing updates during the process, until the fix is complete.
Your gift gives the opportunity for the animal lover in your life to become part of the solution for ending animal homelessness.
Litters of kittens are starting to show up in animal shelters all over the U.S., but it is not too late to help reduce the impact of kitten season this year. Here are a few ways you can help make a difference:
Take Action From Your Home:
Spread the word about spay and neuter on social media. Become a fan of your local low/no cost spay and neuter clinic and FiXiT to share the word about spay and neuter to your friends and family.
Volunteer at GetYourFix.org to help pet owners in need anywhere in the country. Volunteers are sent special email challenges to inspire new action for animals. Make a difference in as little as 5 minutes!
Support spay and neuter efforts. Your donations provide the needed funds to allow low and no cost programs in your community and for animal charityFiXiT to provide the solution for animal overpopulation.
Take Action Locally:
Volunteer at your shelter and get kittens adoption ready. This is a busy time of year at shelters and they need assistance in all types of ways to keep things running smoothly to promote kitten adoption. Keep the kittens healthy by helping keep cages and laundry clean. Socialize those that need more interaction with people. Or help get cats adopted to make room for more.
Organize a kitten season food/goods drive to support the extra burden. Work with your shelter to create a wish list (e.g. milk replacer, bottles, food, and litter) then enlist the support of a local retailer and their clientele to donate much these needed supplies. Or create an Amazon wish list for easy at home shopping!
Foster kittens until they are adoption age. Space and time is a premium at busy shelters and until these little guys can be adopted, you can provide them with the love and care they deserve. New to the fostering world? Check out this informative guide from San Francisco SPCA.
Create a handout listing low cost spay and neuter options in your community and make them readily available to those that need help getting their female fixed. You can check out the GetYourFix.org clinic database to create a list. Then keep them handy and in large supply at the local shelter and distribute them to local pet food retailers.
Any other ideas about how to make a difference for kittens?
photo credit: Graela via photopincc
FiXiT has one focused mission: end companion animal overpopulation. To this end, we launched the Final Fix project, which has allowed us to experiment with different strategies for motivating caregivers to make spay and neuter an essential part of animal care. One of first conclusive findings was that FREE is so much better than not. The demand for a fix shot up by 300 percent nearly overnight here on St. Croix, after advertising a free fix.
FiXiT offers free fixes to persuade those pet owners that would not otherwise alter their dogs or cats. No matter what the financial priorities and resources, free fits into a budget. Free service can also be a motivational tool. Getting such a bargain can also be a great incentive to do something that we would not normally do. Black Friday, anyone?
The reason I bring up the benefits of free now is that I am now happy to announce FiXiT’s first free fix offer outside of St. Croix! With the support of animal charity Best Friends Animal Society, we have an amazing opportunity to offer a free fix to 100 pit bull terriers profiled on GetYourFix.org.
Pit bulls are hard hit by the overpopulation crisis. Nearly 1 million pit bulls are killed each year for lack of homes. FiXiT has made helping them a priority in the past, including our ongoing Half the Pits – Half the Price promotion. Now we can make an even bigger impact on preventing homeless pit bull terriers.
There is a catch – no free lunch, right? To get this free fix, you must qualify:
First, you must register on GetYourFix.org. As always, GetYourFix is a place dedicated to helping people without the financial resources to get their animal fixed. We don’t check your financials, but the majority of our Owners have a household income of less than $35,000.
This offer is exclusive to eight targeted states: California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Texas and Utah. You must live and receive service in one of these states to take advantage.
Of course, you must also create a profile on GetYourFix.org for your pit bull terrier. All pit bull terrier-types qualify, including American Pit Bull Terrier, the American Staffordshire Terrier, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and mixed bred dogs of this “pit bull terrier.”
Don’t have a pit bull terrier, but want to make sure that people learn about this offer. Sweet!
If you live in California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Texas, and Utah:
Download our Free pit bull poster, print, and distribute to pit bull terrier owners, veterinary clinics, shelters, rescue groups and others. (Here is a black and white version.)
Post on bulletin boards, in supermarkets, dog parks, animal shelters, and anywhere where pit bull owners gather.
Join us on Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites and share our posts, tweets and the like about the offer.
If you live in other states:
Share this opportunity with anyone you may know in the above states.
Join us on Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites and share our posts, tweets and the like about the offer.
You can learn about additional ways to help us end companion animal overpopulation by becoming a volunteer on GetYourFix.org/Volunteer.
I have been living on St. Croix for more than two and a half years to manage the Final Fix Project. It has been eventful to say the least. I have enjoyed learning to scuba dive, spend relaxing Sundays on the beach, and appreciate a unique and rich island culture. Best of all, I have implemented FiXiT’s marketing methodology to take a population of pet owners that were apathetic at best to spay and neuter and change them into one that brings as many as 50 animals to the island’s clinic options ever week. This is a volume of surgeries that will be sufficient to REDUCE the population of homeless dogs and cats.
Currently, we are looking for support to take this program to the next level – actually maintain it until we END the overpopulation problem on the island. On St. Croix, 80% of dogs and cats that enter the shelter are euthanized, but this pattern is shifting as more people fix their animals. But by implementing our strategies to maintain a high level of demand, we estimate that withing just two years these numbers will drop to NO DOG EUTHANASIA for adoptable dogs.
To continue, we need to find funds to match a $20,000 matching donation that expires on March 30, 2013. UPDATE: The deadline was extended until April 30, 2013.
Why would this be a great investment? Here are some of our key accomplishments:
Created the St. Croix Animal Welfare Network, a collaboration between all local vets, the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center (the island’s only shelter), and local outreach groups, in order to support a free spay/neuter program.
Surveyed over 2% of the island on their perception of spay/neuter to determine the best messages that will motivate people to alter their animals. This research enabled us to identify that 65% of the island pet owners have NOT fixed their pets.
Conducted three annual island-wide census studies to estimate the number of animals on St. Croix.
Assembled a local advisory board to provide guidance on our messaging.
Developed over 20 designs used in a marketing message surveys to narrow the messaging for our initial launch.
Launched a visiting volunteer vet program to supplement on-island vets
Managed a mobile spay/neuter clinic, donated to the Animal Welfare Center, to begin testing community-based strategies to increase demand for services, with supplemental support coming from the AWC to provide staff and supplies to support the clinic.
Integrated an educational component to the mobile clinic, by holding events at two schools thus far and providing educational information about spay and neuter and tours of the clinic to students in collaboration with Humane Learning Center
Completed over 2500 surgeries. We reached a volume of 200 per month in October thanks to a combination of private vet and mobile clinic surgeries. This is a 1000% increase over the surgeries being done via the voucher program that has been available on island for over a decade.
Your support will make twice the impact right now and support a program that could be the first to end overpopulation. You can make a tax deductible donation to our 501(c)(3) non-profit here or mail a donation to:
FiXiT Foundation
2143 Pier Point Pl.
Virginia Beach, VA 23455
You can read much more about our Final Fix program on St. Croix here or watch our video explaining our programs to end overpopulation in the U.S. here.
FiXiT is creating solutions to bring an end to the crisis that kills millions of homeless animals, but looking at the big picture it becomes pretty obvious which animals are most at risk of becoming a victim: pit bull-type dogs and feral cats.
Every year, nearly a million pit bulls are euthanized – 1 out of every 4 animals put down in shelters is a pit bull. Those odds are pretty depressing for what what many believe are cuddly couch potatoes (See our poll on Causes.org).
Despite some opinions to the contrary, there are many pit bull caregivers that DO NOT want to breed their best canine buddy. As seen by the volume of people who have profiled pit bulls on GetYourFix.org, there are many people that want to end the cycle of unwanted litters — or more suitably unwanted adolescent pits.
I know that when I was a volunteer at a Connecticut animal shelter almost all of the “dog people” had eventually fallen in love with a pit bull and adopted them into their family. This happens everywhere. Of course, not all of these adoptions are accompanied by a spay or neuter. When a family is already overextended financially and a death row pit bull enters their home, the resources to get the animal fixed are not always there.
Now there is hope! Thanks to grant support from Petco Foundation, FiXiT will take action to reduce the number of homeless pit bulls with your help. We are now offering a “Half the Pits – Half the Price” GetYourFix.org sponsorship promotion. For every pit bull that gets sponsored, FiXiT will refund or pay HALF of the cost! Our goal is to cut the pit bull overpopulation problem in HALF!
2. Search for animals that qualify. On the profile search page, select “Dogs” as your species of choice, then narrow the search down to “Pit bull” in the breed category.
3. Sponsor a Fix. Click on “Sponsor My Fix” on the profile page of your pit bull of choice. Sponsors are given two options for funding a fix on GetYourFix. You can use either option and still take advantage of the pit bull promotion.
Option 1. Contact the Owner: Make an offer to an Owner to fund the spay or neuter of the chosen pit bull. Work with the Owner to find a nearby low cost spay/neuter clinic clinic and make an appointment for the fix. Contact FiXiT by email or phone (757-726-SPAY) with details of the arrangements. Please include total cost for the fix only (no vaccines, optional services), clinic name, clinic phone number, and pet profile/Owner details. We will call the clinic and make payment for half of the cost on the day of the surgery.
Option 2. Make a flat donation: Choose a pit bull and make a $100 flat donation for that fix. You can make this donation as a registered Sponsor or as a guest Sponsor (new). FiXiT will refund $50 of the donation.
With your support, we can make a difference for these doomed dogs.
After careful consideration, the FiXiT crew has answered a very important question…Who will be the 2012 Sponsor of the Year? For 2011, Sophie was rewarded this esteemed honor, after she helped fix 19 animals over the course of that year. She placed the bar pretty high for those to follow, but one person stood out in 2012: Robin of Black and Orange Cat Foundation. We were impressed with her work early on, featuring her spay/neuter sponsorship for big dogs on our blog. Over the course of 2012, Robin was responsible for fixing 29 cats and dogs profiled on GetYourFix.
Here are some of these lucky animals:
Not only is she a champion for animals on GetYourFix, Robin has been a rockstar for finding homes for cats. In 2012, the group she works with, Black and Orange Cat Foundation, was able to find homes for 94 cats (and one bunny). This is a new record for them, but their goal is to surpass the 100 mark on cats finding families in a year.
But she states her “true calling”, and the mission of Black and Orange, is spay and neuter. She describes their work, “We set out to help get cats fixed that no one else cared about–the strays, ferals, and homeless. That is my passion and what I hope we can do more of this year until we reach a day when there are no unwanted cats or kittens and people cannot imagine a time when animals were euthanized in shelters because there were ‘too many.’” I couldn’t say it better myself!
Robin plans to continue to pursue her passion as part of her New Year’s resolution. “My personal New Years Resolutions would be to continue to try to improve the world for animals in any small way that I can through the choices I make. I also have to remind myself of all the wonderful people I meet who are doing so much good, because sometimes I tend to feel sad about all of the issues we still face. Being positive and hopeful creates the right environment to produce a better future for the animals, ourselves, and this lovely Earth.”
As a reward for her achievements as Sponsor of the Year, Robin was offered a fix of her choice (donated by another generous donor). She chose Moka, a German Shepherd cared for by Stephen, a father of 7 daughters working as a Security Officer living in Robin’s home state, Ohio. Stephen’s clan adopted Moka from a family that was giving her up, as she didn’t get along with their cats. On December 28, Moka was fixed!
Thank you, Robin, for being an inspiration! If you want to step up and take Robin and Sophie on as next year’s Sponsor of the year, go to the FiXiT program GetYourFix.org and start making a difference by sponsoring animals!
In honor of the Golden Globes and the start of awards season, this post is dedicated to our favorite stars—our pets.
The internet loves animals. Especially those who do adorable things while being filmed. The latest canine clip to go viral features an inquisitive dog named Maymo who can’t quite figure out how to eat an orange. The result: cuteness overload. Maymo’s other on camera adventures include battling a toy mouse and attempting to steal a cabbage.
Maymo is essentially the dog equivalent of Maru, the delightful cat from Japan who has an affinity for cardboard boxes. If you don’t know Maru, do yourself a favor and get to know Maru.
A Google search for dog viral videos produces over 29 million results, and the search for cat viral videos returns 28 million results. So the question remains…what is the human fascination with animal videos?
My hypothesis: these videos that star our furry friends are enjoyable and fun, and we love our animals. Plus, we can’t resist sharing something that makes us smile, and those we share it with do the same, so these clips collect millions of views in a matter of days.
Do your animals have any fun quirks? Which internet animals starts do you find yourself following?
FiXiT loves to promote those that are creating solutions for ending overpopulation. Nancy Janes started her non-profit, Romania Animal Rescue (RAR), in 2003, with a goal to spay/neuter as many dogs as possible. Romania’s severe dog overpopulation problem was multi-faceted, requiring long-term solutions and thoughtful approaches. At first she met with severe resistance among people. There were those who believed that a female would make a better pet if she had birthed at least one litter. Conversely, they thought male dogs were entitled to have their fun. To combat the idea that pets were happier reproducing, Janes pointed out to her detractors that once the puppies were weaned, they were often disposed of in inhumane ways. Wouldn’t it be kinder for the dogs to avoid that situation?
Money was also an issue. Many of the people Janes encountered earned approximately $200 a month, making elective pet care a low priority, so Janes decided to hold a free spay/neuter week at a veterinary clinic in Galati, Romania. She had rubber bracelets produced that said in Romanian, “Sterilize your dogs and cats. Give them a new chance.” Billboard space was purchased advertising the event. To her surprise, people were lined up around the block on the first day.
As word spread, Janes realized RAR could make a difference. She enlisted American veterinarians to help train their Romanian counterparts. Janes expanded the spay/neuter services to other areas and hired a permanent, full-time Romanian vet in 2008, Dr. Stefan Aurelian, who had trained in the U.S. RAR has performed 18,000 spay/neuter surgeries in the last 10 years but Janes says that the majority have occurred since 2009. She credits Aurelian and his team of five for making the difference.
Only one in ten procedures is performed on cats, who seem to have an easier life than dogs. In a country of 21 million humans, there are 2.5 million canines, many of whom are homeless. Janes says that people are fearful of dogs because the ferals pack-up and pose a public safety problem. While RAR never turns away a cat, their primary focus remains reducing the dog population to ensure more and better homes for those already here. Janes and Aurelian estimate that those 18,000 surgeries have probably saved millions of lives by preventing unwanted puppies from entering an unforgiving world.
Janes notes that given the knowledge and tools, most people want to provide a better life for their pets. She also proves that one dedicated person can make it possible.
photo credit: Camil Agapie via photopincc
FiXiT is a big fan of Ellen DeGeneres’ devotion to animals. Last year we tried to catch her attention by creating a video with lots of young ladies in Ellen masks – requesting her to mention GetYourFix.org for World Spay Day. (see below)
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