Group Members: Carly Cornish, Jake Perry, Nate Reid, Sara Taylor
Link to project: https://xd.adobe.com/view/eb90d36c-4a85-4b28-7aaf-3c4ef611950c-9da1/
Essay Portion:
The problem:
Humans have had animal companions for thousands of years. Today still pets are a staple in family households. Many animals, however, are still facing abuse. Shelters and other animal charities are doing the best they can to help these abandoned animals and get them into loving homes. It is hard for shelters and organizations to get the word out about what animals are available for adoption and what they need to be donated to their organization.
What we want to solve is: How can we get the animal-loving population excited and interested in adopting local pets and supporting local shelters/organizations?
We want to tackle this issue because we value all of our animal friends. Many people only want pure-bred bought pets, but that leaves many animals left behind. Money cannot change the love an animal gives you; All pets love equally. Shelters provide an invaluable service to these animals and struggle to make ends meet. We want to support these organization’s passion for animals and give these organizations the much-needed help they deserve.
Empathize: (Nate)
There are over 2 million animals up for adoption in the U.S. alone. And people are still choosing to purchase animals from retail stores rather than going to a local animal shelter and adopting an animal. We are reaching out to pet owners and want to be pet owners to help support these shelters and take care of the animals in need. If we can raise awareness and show people the importance of adopting animals this problem can be solved. We would create something that is accessible to everyone and easy to use. We would potentially reach out to shelters for some sort of partnership to help promote our creation and support each other. Our creation would have some sort of mechanic to support animal shelters all around the U.S. Whether it’s advertising or donations, we would show off to the users what these animal shelters had to offer.
Define: (Group Effort)
Researchers have shown that adults who own a companion animal are more likely to have lower blood pressure and a more regulated heart rate when put in stressful environments or situations than those who don’t have a pet. Animals have created a positive impact on all ages. They can provide a sense of social support among the eldery, and a study have also explained how children between the ages of 3-6 were less stressed visiting the doctor when there was an animal in the room with them. We as animal owners know first hand the emotional and mental benefits that come with caring for an animal, that’s why we’ve designed an app that makes rescuing a pet accessible. We also know, based on the research found that videos of healthy and happy animals can help relieve stress, increase productivity, and boost a person’s mood. This why we created an animal “feed” on the homepage of our application, this will allow shelters to post videos and photos of their animals having fun and being happy. This will not only encourage people to go out and rescue an animal from their local shelter, but will also provide a mental treat for those who need it. (Jake)
Ideate: (Jake)
-Create a Facebook and instagram page that posts up to date photos of animals from the different shelters as well as events going on at those shelters.
Events:
Puppy pizza party(This would be a party put on by local shelters where food is provided, all are welcome and pups are out to play with visitors )
Stickers(for cars, laptops, water bottles)
Get involved with schools. Have afterschool programs that can teach kids the importance of caring for animals in need. As well as give talks to schools about the same.
Create hashtags that people can spread throughout social media.
Hire professional photographers to take photos of the animals.
Email list that sends updates on new animals that arrive to the shelters.
Prototype: (Sara)
https://xd.adobe.com/view/eb90d36c-4a85-4b28-7aaf-3c4ef611950c-9da1/
We decided we are going to pursue an app that will get users excited about local pets and charities. What we are going to do is make an app that deals exclusively with animal-related content. The app will do 3 things.
Watch. The watch tab will show videos/images uploaded by members called creators. Creators are animal shelters, charities, and other animal organizations that wish to promote their content. Posts on this page are shown by the post date. Watchers can give hearts to posts which serve as an upvote system. More hearts mean more likely to appear on watcher’s feeds.
Adopt. This tab will show users animals available for adoption based on the user’s location. Each “card” shows an image of the animal, a description of the animal, and contains a link that directs users to the adoption instructions set by the organization. The animal card also can link to the organizer’s page.
Donate. This tab shows users charities they can donate to. This is again based on the user’s location. The donations can be made directly through the app and users will be able to link PayPal/Venmo/banking details. The vision is that the app does not take a cut of the donations.
We decided to call the app TREAT. This is because the videos are intended to give the user a “treat”, the donations give the shelters/organizations a “treat”, and giving pets treats is a common thing. It is a play on words in many ways, and the name is short and sweet.
We believe that this app will meet the user’s basic needs for happiness. For one, the app can provide the users with a boost in happiness just by seeing the videos of animals, as we discussed above. However, the app becomes so much more than that when one considers the donation and adoption aspect. For one, there is much fulfillment in adopting a pet and caring for an animal. But also, since users can see how much they have donated and see the badges they have collected, the app can fulfill the need for being a part of a greater whole. Since the app’s content is directed entirely towards the organizations and by the organizations, users will not have to worry that their time and money is being directed elsewhere. The beauty of TREAT is its simplicity. Since the app truly only performs 3 basic functions for non-creator users, the user can get immediate gratification for their charitable efforts and connect with animals all in one place.
Test
Revise
NOTES / Sources (Carly)
Information about shelters
Animals
Dogs
Co-evolving relationships with humans for 10,000+ years
Dogs use playtime to help with their social cohesion and bonding with humans and others, also used as a motor skill development
Some dogs due to selective breeding have health issues, because of physical desired features
Cats
First, known domestication is in Egypt
9,500-10,00 years of co-evolving relationships
They love to climb
They like elevated vantage points
When a cat purrs it’s a sign of comfort but also increases their ability to heal faster
Many people find cats to be intelligent, loving but also stubborn and grouchy like another human being
Hamsters
Have short life spans (2-2.5 years)
Their teeth keep on growing, so they need things to chew on
Store extra food in their cheeks
They are “crepuscular” meaning most active at twilight hours
Fish
Can live for decades
Can recognize faces
They have a good memory, can remember up to 3 months
Can see more colors than humans, UV, and Infrared ends of the spectrum
Puppy Mills
Post World War 2 boom in dog breeding
Many people are no longer obtaining their dogs or cats form breeder or buying them in stores
However, there are still thousands of breeding operations that treat their animals poorly
$2.1 billion dollars was spent on live animal purchases in the U.S. in 2017
The growth rate of population is exponential
Breeding cats Year One
Cats Being Bred: 1
Cats Being Born: 12
Breeding Cats Year 5
Cats Being Bred: 43
Cats Being Born: 519
Shelters
80% of dogs and cats that are euthanized in shelters are healthy and adoptable
Many shelters struggle to keep up with the number of animals
“Adopt, Don’t Shop” slogan
Play a crucial role in savings animals lives
Euthanasia rates have declined in the last decade
Reasons People don’t adopt from shelters
27% of them want a purebred animal
26% “shelters won’t have the kind of animal I want”
47% for other reasons
Dogs and Cats Adoption Sources (2017)
Dogs
22% from a shelter
10% from a pet store
12% from a Rescue Group
4% a stray
25% from a friend or relative
Cats
28% from a shelter
10% from a pet store
9% from a rescue group
32% a stray
26% from a friend, or relative
The U.S. Shelter Intake and Euthanasia Rates
2011
Cat Intake: 3,300,000
Dog Intake: 3,900,000
Dogs&Cats Euthanized: 2,600,000
2018
Cat Intake: 3,200,000
Dog Intake: 3,300,000
Dogs&Cats Euthanized: 1,500,000
What people prioritize when adopting a dog
13% size of the dog
30% age of the dog
7% breed of the dog
8% risk of the dog
6% origin of the dog
36% source of the dog
Animal Companion Stats
Total Households
53% have companions
47% don’t have companions animals
Households with companions
38% have one or more dogs
24% have one or more cats
Spending
Grooming and Boarding
$6.16 Billion
Vet Care
$17.07 Billion
Supplies/OTC Medicare
$15.11 Billion
Food
$29.07 Billion
Things we do for pets
70% allowed pets to sleep in their bed
36% of the pets got a birthday Present
24% cooked especially for them
11% took them to work
Social Media
1 in 2 people say their companion animal gets more attention than they do on social media
Instagram Dog influencers can make up 10 $15,000 per post
About 2 million cat videos on youtube, with a total of 25 Billion Views
50 of the most popular companion animal Instagram accounts
44% are dogs
35% are cats
4% are others
Types of Animal companions
48% of dogs
38% of cats
10% of freshwater fish
6% of birds
5% of small animals
4% of reptile
2% of horse
2% saltwater fish
Bans
Pitbulls
40 states ban
Rottweiler
22 states ban
Wolf Dogs
20 states ban
Presa Canario
18 states ban
Doberman
15 states ban
Chow Chow
13 states ban
American Bulldog
10 states ban
Misidentification of Breeds In Bite Incidents
30.9% are misidentified by the Media
40.2% misidentified by media and Animal Control
Antipathy towards Pitbulls
When asked about Pitbulls
50% would not consider adopting a pitbull
51% would advise others against adopting a pitbull
40% said Pitbulls shouldn’t live in residential neighborhoods
The ability of shelter Workers to Identify Breeds
56.3% able to identify Primary breed
10.4% able to identify the primary and secondary breed
33.3% not able to identify any breed in DNA profile
Benefits of Living with Companion Animals
Helps to maintain enhancing activities of daily living
Provides protection for children from respiratory tract infections during the first year of life
Effective as thinking of one’s best human friend in staving off feelings of social rejection
https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics
https://www.ourcauseforpaws.org/blogs/news/saving-companion-animals-from-inhumane-conditons?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0OLSyKih5gIVFG6GCh2logEsEAAYAyAAEgIylvD_BwE
https://bestfriends.org/transparency-americas-shelters
Stats on people and animals
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-study-finds-dogs-make-people-better-happier-and-healthier-humans-300364359.html
Interaction of watching animal videos, how it affects the brain
https://www.verywellmind.com/stress-relieving-benefits-of-watching-cute-animal-videos-4150074
Animal Photos and Martial Bliss
Study done by James Mcnulty of Florida State found marital satisfaction could be improved by having more animals photos
Took 144 couples married less than five years
Over a six week period
One group saw pictures of cute animals and their partners, while others saw partners paired with neutral objects
Those who saw cute animals had more positive automatic responses to spouses
Demonstrated more satisfaction in their marriage
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/cuteness-cute-kawaii-power-krigolso-uvic-joshua-dale-japan-1.3984970
Cute animals give people a jolt of joy, but could also do brian healing
Short term burst of happiness lead to better cognitive function for short term
Cute image delivers the brain a miniscule blast of dopamine
Tend to trigger emotional responses
Hiroshima University research
Showed that staring at “cute” pictures of baby animals improves attention and concentration of 132 University Students
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/science-watching-animal-videos-could-make-you-a-better-employee/263042/
Using the japanese technique “Kawaii”, researchers wanted ot see its effects on human behavior
48 college students
1st experiment, had them play japenese version of operation
2nd performed a visual search using number matrices
3rd tested participants focus
In all three experiments, people who were looking at cute baby animals outperformed those who did not
Out performed those who were looking at images of adult animals
https://www.thepuppymillproject.org/about-puppy-mills/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIko775cKr5gIVwp-zCh2vtwDuEAAYASAAEgKiI_D_BwE (Puppy Mill)
Basic Stats
167,388 breeding dogs currently living in United States
About 10,000 puppy mills in U.S
2 million puppies bred in mills each year
1.2 million dogs are euthanized in shelters a year
Thousands of dogs commercially bred puppies are shipped into illinois and sold from illinois pet stores each year
What’s wrong with puppy mills
Put profit over health of dogs
Can be large or small operations
In order to sell a pet to a store the breeder must have a license, many sell to stores without proper license
Breeding parents spend lives in 24 hour confinement cages, which are often stacked on top of one another
Don’t usually have protection from heat cold or inclement weather
Receive little to no veterinary care
Mothers are bred every heat cycle and usually killed when they no longer can produce
Not killed humanely
Including shooting or drowning
Puppies taken from mothers too early can develop health conditions
Where are puppy mill puppies sold
https://www.aspca.org/news/3-shady-things-pet-stores-dont-want-you-know
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