Blog The Change!

Hey everyone! It’s Blog The Change for Animals Day!

That means pet lovers everywhere are blogging to do their part to improve the lives of animals all over the world. We here at ILRA would like to take this opportunity to get our Last Chance Pets twitter project going again. Last Chance Pets is a sub-account of RescueAnimals and was started because we saw how the real time interchange of twitter was actually saving lives and we wanted to be able to harness that power to help even more animals on death row. It soon became apparent to me, however, that one account could never cover the vast scope of animals in need. And so it began – we put a call out for people who wanted to tweet about urgent animals in a specific state. Breaking it down into smaller areas means that it is not only more manageable for the person running the account but that other twitter folks can follow an account for their own area – one which they are more likely to be able to make an impact in. So, for instance, people in and around Connecticut can follow LastChanceCT and either look for animals that they can personally save, or retweet it to their own followers, many of whom are also likely to live in that general area. Thus the probability of it reaching someone who can actually step up and rescue the animals is increased.

Anyway, we had several people take on the challenge and thus our list of states began to grow. As time went on, however, we stopped getting new volunteers and some of the accounts became inactive. So here we are, relying on the amazing hearts & spirit behind the Be The Change movement to get the Last Chance Pets project going again. Below you’ll find lists of those states already covered as well as those needing to be taken over. We are also hoping people in the states not represented will want to join the cause. All you have to do is let us know and we’ll get everything set up for you, both an email account and a twitter account. From there it’s up to you to find animals in urgent need and post them. You won’t be alone, however, because you can always ask the established accounts for help (LastChanceCT is a plethora of knowledge on how to gain followers, find shelters & humane officers you can work with, etc.) There are also several ways to find animals in need, even purely searching the internet.

Here are the Last Chance accounts we have that are currently in action:

LastChancePets (Main)
LastChanceCT
LastChanceMI
LastChanceNC

Last Chance accounts created but have since died:

LastChanceCA
LastChanceKY
LastChanceNY
LastChanceMN
LastChanceMD
LastChanceNJ

And we will make one for any other state! As of this moment, all LastChance state twitter names are open except for Indiana (LastChanceIN) which we are going to try and work on. We are also desperately trying to snatch up all those names so that we can have consistency across the board making our accounts easy for anyone to find. We can also set up accounts for the different provinces in Canada or anywhere abroad you’d like! If there’s someplace you’d like to cover, let us know and we’ll make it happen! We really believe in this cause and I know if we all join together, we can make a huge difference! All that a lot of these animals and shelters need is more exposure. There is always someone out there willing to help – we just need to reach them. Wouldn’t you love to be able to make that happen? Then please join us! Comment below telling us which area you’re interested in. And if more than one person is interested in the same state, we can always work something out where you can both tweet for the same account. Don’t be shy! Let’s start saving more animals today!

Filed under: BlogPaws, Causes on July 15th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

I Love Rescue Animals is proud to announce that we have partnered with Great Nonprofits to bring to the public the 2010 Animal Welfare Campaign, a great opportunity for all nonprofit animal organizations, rescues, and shelters. Along with us, Great Nonprofits has also partnered with the American Humane Association, Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Humane Society of the United States, Wildlife Forever, DogTipper.com, K9 Magazine, and Pet Museum and we are all asking for your help to identify top-rated nonprofits protecting the welfare of the animals in our homes, communities, and around the world.

What this campaign is designed to do is showcase the hard-working nonprofits in the animal community. Even with the economy slowly on the rise, animal groups are still suffering and in need of help. Not sure how you can help? Well that’s where this campaign comes in. Tell us about YOUR experience – how are these organizations having an impact? Which ones are great? Which ones need some improvement? Your participation in this campaign helps identify the nonprofits that are making a difference on behalf of animals, both wild and domestic, here and overseas.

In 2009 over 450,000 people read reviews of thousands of nonprofits at GreatNonprofits.org – written by donors, volunteers, board members and by the general public. These reviews are also visible on GuideStar. Whether you are a part of a nonprofit organization, a volunteer, a board member, a client served or a donor, we invite you to participate in 2010 Animal Welfare Campaign and help speak out for those nonprofit animal organizations that you love.

Benefits of this Campaign:

• Recognition: Every organization that gathers 10 or more positive reviews during the month of July will make the Great Nonprofits Top-Rated Animal Welfare Nonprofits List.
• Community Engagement: Great opportunity for nonprofits and their community members to interact and engage directly.
• First-person stories: Clients, volunteers, donors and others share with the public, in their own words, how this nonprofit serves its community. Nonprofits can use this resource of powerful and authentic stories to engage donors and volunteers.

How to participate:

Nonprofits: Invite people who have seen your work – your volunteers, clients, board members, and others – to write a review about you. It’s free, quick, and easy. You can:

• Send them an email with the link to your reviews page.
• Post the link on the homepage of your Web site.
• Use your Facebook fan page: post the link and opportunity to review to your Facebook status
• Tweet out the link for your followers to post reviews or retweet our tweets about the campaign (@GreatNonprofits)

Supporters: Take this free opportunity to raise support for this important issue by visiting http://bit.ly/awpartners.

The campaign deadline is July 31, 2010. Let’s hear your stories and experiences!

Check out the Great Nonprofits’ 2010 Animal Welfare Campaign site as well as the FAQs if you have any questions.

Filed under: Animals in Need, Causes, Partners on July 1st, 2010 | No Comments »

Last week, Ash and I got a chance to talk on the phone with Tracy Blinder, who works with Lippe Taylor, the PR firm in charge of Rachael Ray’s Nutrish dog food (many thanks to Caroline of Romeo the Cat for introducing us). She told us all about the new project that Nutrish has started called My Shelter Site. It’s a place for shelters or rescues to go to create their own website – complete with hosting, design, and content management system (WordPress – my personal favorite!).

She also informed us that she is coming to our own Austin, Texas to talk with all the shelters in the area about what this project can do for them and why it is so very important to have a good, user-friendly and functional website. This mission is near and dear to my heart and I am so happy to help spread the word about it. This outreach program is open to all non-profit shelters who are interested in or need a service such as this. Click on the flyer for more details:

Click on this flyer to see it fullsize!

The Details!

When: Tuesday, June 15th @ 6-8pm
Where: The Cork Room @ J Blacks [website]
Address: J Blacks Feel Good Lounge
710 West 6th Street (Near Avenue C)
Austin, Texas 78701

If you would like to RSVP, please contact 212-598-4400, or email Tracy Blinder (tblinder@lippetaylor.com) or Allison Good (agood@lippetaylor.com) and let them know that your shelter or rescue would like to take part in this awesome event. We hope to see you there!

Filed under: Causes, Events, Rescue/Shelter on June 9th, 2010 | No Comments »

The wait has been long and hard, and I know you’re all ready to hear who won our Pet Blog Design Giveaway, but let’s talk about the awesome PawPawty that happened as well.

The BlogPawty and the following PawPawty were focused around the group Pets Without Parents and with the help of a ton of awesome people, we raised a whopping $1700 for this group. The target was a mere $500, which was reached before the first BlogPawty even began. It just goes to show not only how great people are, but how incredibly important social media is to helping shelters and rescues.

On to our Winner!

So here is what you were waiting for. The winner of a brand new pet-centered blog design is…

*drumroll*

#1: Shauna of Fido and Wino!

Congratulations Shauna! Your blog will be given a full design makeover worth up to $500. I’ll be contacting you about it soon, but if you want to get a headstart on the project, you could go fill out the quote request form to give me an idea of what you’d like to see. I’m extremely excited to work with you on this! I would like to point everyone over to Shauna’s awesome blog Fido and Wino and take a look at her new project: The R.O.A.R. Squad (something Ash and I hope to take part in as well – Go Texas!). It’s a great way to really give Rescue Owners props for the lives they have saved.

Congrats again Shauna and I look forward to working with you!

Filed under: BlogPaws, Causes, Giveaways, Website Related on April 28th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Last week may have been the official Be The Change day (click that link to read our post out about it and help out Feline Forever Ranch), but that by no means says that it has to stop there. This week on April 21st, there will be a PawPawty (or BlogPawty as the case may be this time) to help raise money for Pets Without Parents. To help out, I am going to be hosting a giveaway of my own.

The Giveaway

If you didn’t know it already, I am a web designer. I work for a small company here in Austin, but in my spare time, I freelance under the name Design Coyote (and @designcoyote on twitter). So to do my part in this great twitter pawty, I will be giving away one awesome pet design (estimated cost up to $500) for one lucky pet blogging winner!

You can see my work here at ILRA (the current design and the illustrations), over my personal blog Snailbird, or my design site that I linked to above.

The Rules

01. You don’t have to have a blog to win. We can set you up with an awesome blog either on Blogspot or a self-hosted WordPress blog (or another blog platform of your choice). The only catch is, whether you do have a blog or you’re going to be making one, it has to be about animals/pets!
02. WordPress.com blogs are not eligible unfortunately, only because they do not host custom designs. If you have a WordPress.com blog and win, you have two options: either move to a hosted wordpress blog, or move to blogspot.
03. You do not have to make a donation to be eligible to win.

How To Win

Now here’s the fun part! Ash and I tried to think up different ways that would not only be fun to do, but would also get people to promote adoption, shelters, and rescues and here’s what we came up with. To have your name thrown in the hat, we would like for those of you on twitter to pick a twitter account that posts about animals in need (be it urgents needing fosters or adoption, or animals requiring donations for injuries or rescue purposes) and RT it.

Once you’ve done your retweet to help the cause, comment here with a link back to your retweet, and we’ll toss your name into our hat of entries. If, for some reason, you do not have a twitter account, no worries. Just find something you would like to “retweet” and post it on your blog and post that link here! This giveaway is open as of now and will continue on until 1am EST on Monday the 26th of April I will announce the winner sometime later that day.

Be sure to attend the awesome BlogPawty on Wednesday starting at 7pm eastern time. It’s going to be a blast – full of new friends, great music, and awesome connections. See you there!

Contest Closed!

Winner will be announced soon.

Filed under: BlogPaws, Causes, Donations, Events, Giveaways, Website Related on April 19th, 2010 | 5 Comments »