RSS - Subscribe!| 5/16/2008 3:32 AM | Email this article  • Print this article  |
Local shelter doesn't collar the big prize By Karen Mansfield Staff writer Doggone it.
Washington Area Humane Society came up short in its bid to win a $1 million makeover from Zootoo.com, an Internet site for pet lovers. The Web site selected Stray Rescue of St. Louis, Humane Society of the Ohio Valley in Marietta, Ohio, and Jefferson County SPCA of Watertown, N.Y., as the three finalists. Zootoo.com announced the finalists Thursday at the 2008 Humane Society of the United States Animal Expo Conference in Orlando, Fla. Those three will go to New York City, where the winner will be announced May 21.
Washington Area Humane Society placed among the top 20 animal shelters, out of more than 1,000 shelters that participated in the national competition. The second-place shelter will receive $10,000, while the remaining 18 shelters each will win $5,000 "It's devastating, but a lot of good came out of it," said Jet Miskis, a volunteer at the shelter, referring to the outpouring of support the shelter received from the community during the competition. "The community really stepped up. The list just goes on and on of dozens of small businesses to large corporations, churches, schools and organizations who really stepped up to help us." The Washington County legislative delegation gave a $15,000 grant for new surgery room equipment; Consol Energy donated $2,500 and pledged to donate land to the shelter if it won the contest; Range Resources donated $10,000, and several area landscapers donated supplies. Zootoo.com founder Richard Thompson, who visited the shelter April 15, considered three criteria: online voting, community support and need. Washington Area Humane Society lapped the competition in online voting, accumulating more than 2.5 million points, 900,000 more votes than the runner-up. Shelter supporters turned out in droves when Thompson visited the no-kill, nonprofit shelter last month, waving signs and dog leashes. "We did a phenomenal job," said Miskis. "We wanted to make it difficult for them to turn us down, and we did that. I think we met every bit of criteria. I thought they should have put us in the top three." Miskis questioned some of the competition procedures, saying the rules changed throughout the six-month contest.
"There were a lot of things about this competition, where I thought Zootoo was out of touch with the true needs of struggling shelters," said Miskis. The cost for two humane society board members to attend the Animal Expo, for example, could have been spent on animal care, she said. "I don't feel bad for the animals, because they're loved and taken care of. We will do the work, we will do it ourselves. We will get there. It may take longer, but we'll make it better for the animals little by little." The animal shelter chooses to look at the positive effects of the contest. Since the campaign launched, the adoption rate has jumped 12 percent. The number of volunteer dog walkers also has increased. "We have more walkers now than we've ever had. It used to be that not a single dog was walked Monday through Friday," said Miskis. "Now, we have dog walkers almost every day." |
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In response to the last 2 posts : 5/28/2008
Why does it matter the shelter I support. I will not give the name of my shelter for I have read many comments that show your true colors. Many of you also dont seem to acknoledge that it is not just Zootoo that was in that panel, but also the HSUS, SHeltering magazine, and Pedigree, but you only want to hate against zootoo. I am mearly saying that other shelters could not participate, but still claimed their shelter. I read the rules and knew that we could not win becuase we are not a 501c3. However I do work with many rescues and barely put down any animals as I try to get them into homes. Dont jump to conclusions you know nothing of. Neither of you even read the rules by the sounds of it. So if you did not read them how can you complain. Would you by a car with no warrenty assuming it had one and then complain, or would you read the contract? It is common sense. Your shelter got alot more help then you know of like the 40,000 in donations on the day zootoo was their, and the 11,000 from zootoo and pedigree. Plus the vaious other company donations in many newspaper reports from the shelter manager. It was not about how old your shelter was, as your is not the only shelter that deserving or that old, it was multiple factors including your programs, the proprty and the capability to get the makeover done such as the town ordinances, the support, the points only got you in the top 20 but all the 20 shelters had the same chance. Even Ellensburg who is a municipal shelter received money even though they knew they did not have a chance to win. However you still seem to be confused it was never a million dollars, but a chance to win a makeover valued UP TO a Million Dollars. And I do not think your shelter would be very happy to hear what many of you have been saying as it is the shelter itself has stated they will continue to use zootoo and the next contest. So why do you see things so differant. I am sure that the shelter took the wheel and read the rules and knew what they were, but the media told a differant story.
zootoo scam : 5/26/2008
This contest was completely deceiving. Zootoo did not care about how much a community rallied for their shelter. Reading the comments from "municipal shelter" makes this all the more frustrating. This person probably is involved in a kill shelter and their over population is "easily" taken care of. The Wash. cnty. humane society has approx. 100years of saving lives and have now gone to the "no kill" way, every life matters to them. They are a shelter in need and we the supporter will cont. to support them even though they were scammed. Zootoo is have another "shelter makeover", it would be nice if they would just give the money who they want to as they did in this contest and don't get everyone's hopes up.
zootoo misleading : 5/24/2008
I just read the comment from municipal shelter, this person does not state which shelter they area associated with so who knows how true they are. This contest was very misleading to all, please read the comments below "municipal shelter" made on 5/21. The entire community was mislead. OK we did not win but we did not even make the top 3, this was poorly run by zootoo. I am sure "municipal shelters" way of dealing with this is just to kill their animal, but not the Washington county HS. I feel as though this was a big publicity scam for zootoo and good for them they got known. I contacted zootoo and had myself removed from their site, I will not support a dishonest organization. I do realize they are having other contests and another makeover, but that winner is probably already picked so why bother. If other in Washington would like to try again, that's great, but I feel like we are going to get the short end of the stick again. Who would think that a shelter who has been trying to help animals for 100years would be so deserving? Surely not Mr/Miss/Mrs "Municipal Shelter"
The rules never changed : 5/21/2008
I am really not sure whare any of you got your information and speaking of ashamed that is what you all should be. I have the original paket for the shelter makeover and compared it to the rules on the site right now, and they match 100%. SO how have the rules changed. You cannot be happy that you got any help. You cannot accept that your shelter is not the neediest. Do you know many shelters care for dogs in outside inclosures, have a handful of volunteers and have no help. Those truly needy shelters never even got any help like money, but still appreciate zootoo for the exposure. The rules are clear and are not even half way down the page. They never state the most points wins. NOONE voted you were to be active hence why the other shelters did not need as many supports to stay because they have active supporters. You fail to see all of that. If any of you had questions why did you not call the customer service line. As a shelter manager I did.
Publicity, education, and community support : 5/17/2008
I don't blame everyone for being frustrated. Maybe we can turn some of this negative energy into something good for the animals-- that's what it's all about, right? More people than ever are aware of WAHS and their needs, so now is the time to do a massive fundraising campaign! See if you can't raise the roof with community support. Make sure WAHS stays in the headlines as a model of community activism and education. You are already winners, even if not the way you wanted.
Washington Co Humane Society : 5/16/2008
The fix was in. All the rule changes in mid contest to help their favorites get over. Sen Spector should take a look at this fraudulent "contest" after all the hard work people put in and all of the email addresses and other information that these people collected in the guise of this so called contest. Who knows what they're doing with that information.
Shelter Makeover : 5/16/2008
I agree that this contest was very misleading and poorly handled! Everyone totally stepped up to vote and we all did a GREAT job voting and then they come up with all of these rules - AFTER the contest is over! And then - Another new rule -- the shelter visit -- how could they NOT think we NEED A NEW shelter??? I personally have just sent an email to Zootoo stating my dissatisfaction which I think everyone else should do as well!
Washington Area Shelter : 5/16/2008
I spent a lot of time on zootoo racking up points and I read the rules. When the contest ended and I read that you guys didn't win I was blown away. And now that you didn't even finish in the top three is perplexing to say the least. I love animals so I do wish the final 3 well, it will still benefil homeless animals so everyone is a winner. But I agree with the person who suggested that if everyone who voted donated $1.00. Let's give it a go! I'll be mailing my check. I don't live in Washington anymore but 2 of our pets growing up came from that shelter. God bless you!
Shelter Contest Scam : 5/16/2008
I think it's rediculous that this happened. ZooToo should be called out in the headlines. WAHS had the most outcry of support for need, but yet weren't even considered. Something should be done
WAHS : 5/16/2008
I think that the shelter folks need to go take a look at the rules. There was nowhere that they said that if you had the most points you would win nor did it say that you would be in the top 3. How do I know this - simple - I went out and read the rules. What they need to do is look on the positive side and consider how much they gained in donations and volunteers. Remember, one of the criteria was need and obviously the ZooToo folks felt that there were other shelters who were in worse need than WAHS.
Shelter "Contest" : 5/16/2008
What a hose job! They changed the rules to benifit who THEY wanted to win. This was never a contest, only a publicity stunt for that web site to give the money to whom they wanted an pretend it was a contest. I hope that Senator Spector gets involved and that Ellen and all of the high profile people involved are made aware of this sham.
Washington Humane Society : 5/16/2008
I truly think we were misled. No where in the rules did it say anything about any further actions being used...just the leading vote-getter, and that was Washington, by a huge margin! Zootoo should be investigated. Maybe they got something for all of us signing up for their website.
contest scam : 5/16/2008
What a total and complete Rip-off!!! Everyone was told the shelter with the most votes would win the big makeover provided they met the other criteria, which WAHS apparently did. I agree with the previous comment here, that ZooToo should get an ear full about this contest that was nothing more than a scam.
Shelter Contest : 5/16/2008
It sounds like everyone was misled by this "contest" . Shame on Zootoo.
Zootoo : 5/16/2008
I feel like our community has been conned by this organization. The alleged criteria for determining the winner were community involvement, online voting and need. WAHS had 1 million more points than the 2nd place shelter, double the participants of the next highest shelter. I haven't seen the other shelters so can't address the need issue. But it seems apparent those weren't the criteria that were used. I wonder if the organization is ever going to tell us what they really based their decision on. I also find it very disturbing that zootoo insisted that WAHS send a representative to Miami and spend hard earned money to go there. That money could have been used for the shelter. This has really left a bad taste in my mouth. I really feel that zootoo misrepresented themselves and this contest. I am closing my zootoo account today. Shame on you zootoo for lying to the people who care about this Humane society and the animals there.
Zoo To : 5/16/2008
I think that this was very misleading and we earned the right to the number one position by the number of votes we had way surpased the others, and that is what zoo.too said they were going by initially, not after doing a visit. The whole thing is very misleading, and zoo.too needs to apologize to Washington Area Humane Society for getting their hopes up, and so many aminal lovers out there who were excited that the animals would have a better place to go if they were homeless. I think instead of a top three, zoo.too should divide the whole amount between the top 20. I think the best thing Washington County animal lovers can do is just for "every vote" just done a $1.00 to the Humane Society and we will help our local shelter ourselves. Everyone pulled together for the votes, we can all do the same for the donations as well. D.S. - Border Collie Mom Wash, PA
Just Not right : 5/16/2008
I was of the understanding the shelter that got the most votes would be the winner. Since they changed the rules it makes it look like they had a different plan and even perhaps had a predetermined winner. Just not fair for all of us who went on line daily to help our shelter get the most votes by a huge margine. I hope everyone who did do all the voting does make a donation to our shelter just to prove to Zootoo we can do it without them!
Contest : 5/16/2008
This stinks. Its obvious Zootoo was just using the voting part of the contest to increase traffic at their site. I'd be interested to see if they follow through on any of their promises.
Washington County Humane Society : 5/16/2008
I agree that this contest was misleading. I interpreted it the same way this other person did that whatever shelter earned the most points won the makeover. I don't recall them ever saying that there would be finalists and that a person from Zootoo would then come and assess the shelter and their need. I think that we all need to complain on about Zootoo and on Zootoos website.
shelter contest : 5/16/2008
I, too, think this contest was most unfair and that the rules were changed from what they were at the beginning. I also feel that WAHS should have been in the top three. To totally ignore the points was uncalled for.
Washington Area Humane Society : 5/16/2008
If everyone who voted for the Washington Area Humane Society would donate just $1.00, they would be in good shape!
shelter : 5/16/2008
I think this contest was misleading, in all of the ads on the radio, tv reports, and all publicity to get people to go online and vote it was my understanding that the shelter with the most points would win the contest, it was never mentioned until that part of the contest ended that someone from zoo too would come out and decide. What was the purpose of the points. The way they did this they should have just skipped the involvement of the public and just make a decision. I just have a hard time accepting this was fair when the shelter with the most points did not even make the top 3!
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