I just came across this great set of ads from the Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. The ads are part of the Fix at Four campaign, which is designed to educate people about the proper age for spaying and neutering your pets. (Well done, Best Friends. Bob Barker would be proud.)
Did you know that a kitten can become a mother at four months of age and a puppy at six months? Kind of crazy, when you think about it. (Take it from me, I adopted an unwed teen puppy mother off the streets. After Bella had her puppies, some cruel person kept the puppies and dropped her off at the shelter – and she was barely a year old at the time, maybe less.)
These ads are extremely clever, funny and effective. I think this one is my favorite (based on the Creek connection, of course).
Check out two more ads, after the jump…
Which one is your favorite?
To learn more spay/neuter facts, visit the Fix at Four site. It’s full of great info!
I love this is ad campaign. They’re all great but I think I like the last one the best – just because it has more cute puppies and kittens in it. 😉
Love the new look and congrats on the platform move. I’m just getting back into things and hope to get caught up on things soon. I have a LOT of reading to do. 🙂
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That’s true. I’m a sucker for the Dawson’s Creek connection in the cat one, though. 🙂
And thank you!
Bella was so lucky to find you – and you her! Hopefully Best Friends’ clever campaign will help prevent more teenage moms.
Amy@GoPetFriendly recently posted..Happy Birthday, Buster!
I was definitely very lucky! 🙂
Oh, I love these! The first one is my favorite, but the second one had me laughing, too! What great attention getters!
houndstooth4 recently posted..Decorating With Dogs
The second one I saw first, but the soundtrack to the first one pushed it over the top for me!
Middle one – the golden puppy is adorable!
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So true… there’s a lot of cute in that ad!
Amazing! 🙂
What a great ad campaign hehe!
xo
Luna
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Agreed. 🙂
Hilarious! I love the creativity behind these ads. There really is no excuse not to get one’s pet spayed/neutered, especially one’s cat.
I didn’t know Bella had a litter of puppies before you adopted her. I imagine that is just as hard on a dog’s young body as it is on a girl’s. While it’s sad they just dumped her afterwards, at least they didn’t turn her into a full-time breeding dog. I’d say she ended up in the right place. 🙂
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Yeah, it was still fairly obvious when we adopted her (she was still saggy and getting her shape back). Poor pup – I still don’t understand how anyone could ever give her up, but I’m glad that she ended up with us!
I was a little worried about this ad campaign. Discussing the sexual nature of pre-teens is a pretty risky move. But they seemed to have skirted the creepy factor at the very last second.
Our shelter spays and neuters puppies at 8 weeks old. They claim the early surgery has no ill effects and is more reliable than sending people home with a free-surgery certificate when the pup or kitty is a little older. When I adopted Agatha and Christie, the conventional wisdom was to wait until dogs were six months old. Being just a little disorganized could result in “uh ohs.”
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I agree – there is a fine line there, but I think they managed to skew towards cute/funny rather than creepy.
I can definitely see how the free surgery certificate might not be as effective – there’s no guarantee that people will take the time to follow through or find it important. Sounds like a smart policy at your shelter.
i like all of these ads. pretty cute! i had no idea that Bella had been through that. poor sweet girl! she is so very lucky to have found you.
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I feel like the lucky one! 🙂
The last one is the most informative I think, but I like the second one best. Who doesn’t love a Golden pup?
From cancer dog forums I’ve (unfortunately) been on, I know some folks are reluctant to spay/neuter early because studies have shown a much higher incidence of bone cancer in pups that were neutered before I think it was 12-18 mo. But it’s pretty risky to try to keep your dog, um, “out of trouble” for that long. The ol’ “use a condom” lecture just doesn’t work on the pets! I know some folks who waited to get their new pups fixed because of the prior pup having bone cancer. But they were vigilant about keeping her under a close watch. It would be a tough choice for me I think – except for the fact that when you rescue a pup in CA they have to be fixed before the shelter can adopt them out (I’m pretty sure that is the law here). Anyway, since our last 2 pups were rescues, they were already spayed when we got them. (Of course, one of them got bone cancer at age 15 mo… so, who knows.)
I hope that doesn’t sound like I’m anti-spay/neuter of young age pets, because I’m not. I think they sh/be fixed. I just can’t help but worry about those studies… Once you have a bone cancer dog, it really messes with your Worry Gene. And my Worry Gene was already set to hyper-drive, so now it’s really over the top.
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You make a really good point… there are other things to consider as well. I was not aware of the possible bone cancer connection. I think talking about it with your vet is really important – and it’s definitely a tough choice to make, as you pointed out. I think shelters here always spay/neuter before adopting out as well, so I guess in that case the choice is out of our control.
Even if people decide to wait, I think it’s good to raise awareness of just how early puppies/kittens can get pregnant. Perhaps those that decide to wait will at least be more vigilant.
Also, I totally have a Worry Gene so I can understand!
I did not know the age for cats but I did for dogs. Sometimes though they can spay the dog too early which can cause bladder/leakage problems. I have a friend that happened to.
Still education is key, the more that get the message the better off they’ll all be! Sad about Bella, I’m pretty sure the same was done to Delilah. But look at the beauties we got. 🙂
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I agree – education is key. Maybe that early is not the best for everyone, but at least then people will know to be very careful!
Wow. Really great ad! I’m sharing this one AJ.
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Those videos are really amazing! And their website is great!