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Help save lives in paradise! Sadly, the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands is home to overwhelming pet overpopulation and a staggering euthanasia rate. Annually, four of five cats and dogs, roughly 80% of those that enter their animal shelter are euthanized and the problem is not getting better. Even though 40% of islanders live below the poverty level, they want to do the right thing; spay and neuter their pets, but deterrents such as expense, lack of transport, and scheduling have made it a practical challenge.

 

Now, St. Croix is on the brink of an overpopulation breakthrough. Through the efforts of the FiXiT Foundation, the island is approaching a volume of spay/neuter surgeries that would stabilize the dog and cat populations and check the overwhelming rate of euthanasia. Through a series of promotions and incentive strategies, the residents of St. Croix are currently receiving free spay/neuter services. This offer has resulted in a volume that is approaching a level that could make a long-term difference in the animalpopulation, if sustained. To reach the volume of fixes that would officially curb this crisis, we need to bring spay/neuter to the most restricted groups of pet owners.

 

Your donation today will help FiXiT host a community spay weekend to take spay and neuter to the next level and save the lives of thousands of unwanted animals in this impoverished U.S. territory, so close to home.  

 

 

Donate today and you can help FiXiT save the lives of unwanted puppies and kittens in this small island paradise, so close to home. Invite others who care about animals to support our project and spread the word by posting to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. 

 

Facebook Post Text:

Please help fill the bucket! FiXiT Foundation was selected from hundreds of applications to be this week's project on TippingBucket.org. They are trying to raise funds for a community spay weekend that will save thousands of island dogs and cats. They have 10 DAYS to fill the bucket or get nothing. Please DONATE & SHARE this on your wall!

Tweet Text: 

Save lives in paradise today! Staggering pet overpopulation overwhelms StCroix animal shelter.Give‘em a lift to get spayed/neutered.http://tippingbucket.org

 

FiXiT Foundation is using strategic marketing to tap into the pet owner demographic that typically do not fix their pets. We have conducted multiple large-scale surveys of owners of unfixed animals, asking them what has motivated their decisions and what messages and advertisements would be most likely to change their mind. What we have learned is that 38% of Crucians are owners/guardians of dogs or cats, but that two-thirds of these pet owners had NOT fixed their pets. These people often lack the motivation and resources to spay/neuter their animals. 

 

We also found that expense, motivation, and schedule conflicts were among the most common explanations given to explain why animals remained unfixed. To combat these deterrents, thus far, we have promoted spay/neuter through a series of offers: a control promotion of low cost surgeries, low cost with comparable valued incentives, and now free. At each transition, we have seen a significant increase in motivation by these pet owners. We currently distribute over 47 free codes to Crucians on average per week, but we need 70. Bringing spay/neuter to the communities with the highest pet relinquishment when schedules are less restricted will get us to that level and provide evidence that a strategic marketing methodology can bring an end to animal homelessness.

 

FiXiT Foundation is composed almost exclusively of a volunteer staff of twenty-five experienced professionals with varying specialties, most with experience in the animal welfare community. Among these professions, we have experts in marketing, public relations, web development, online media, corporate relations, and law. In Norfolk, Virginia, we have a fundraising team of ten individuals and a social networking team of six. These teams would be responsible for getting the word out about the "FiX Island Animals" project via our social networking sites and FiXiT Foundation’s website. 

 

FiXiT’s executive director is based in St. Croix, USVI, where we have established the St. Croix Animal Welfare Network. This is a collaborative effort to bring spay/neuter to everyone between FiXiT Foundation, St. Croix Animal Welfare Center, and the island’s veterinary community. We currently advertise the spay/neuter clinic as a project of the Network. As part of our collaboration, we share many of the same animal-loving volunteers. FiXiT St. Croix has dedicated volunteers that perform help advertise the spay/neuter promotions, conduct marketing surveys, and social networking, and the animal shelter alone has over 200 volunteers that we would be willing to spread the word on the street.

 

We are targeting a pet owning population of the island that is most likely not to have access to veterinary clinics during office hours or transportation and where there will be the highest impact. The local animal shelter, St. Croix Animal Welfare Center, carefully tracks the areas of high cat and dog relinquishment. Optimally, we will host an event that increases the number of surgeries to a monthly level of 300 by offering an event open to 60 animals.  After only 2 years, this number of spays could save more than 5000 animals from being born.  Being able to provide access to spay/neuter to the islands poorest residents will be an investment to save thousands of dollars in shelter resources and companion animal lives.  

 

Currently, our study is tracking the success of a variety of marketing channels. We are currently offering spay and neuter procedures for free, but have been moving through a series of escalating offers. At each new promotion, we have been tracking how demand has changed through different offers and how different media channels are differentially utilized. This event would prove that we might overcome the existing practical limitations to reach a level few other spay/neuter programs have ever reached. This type of research has never been performed for spay/neuter in a closed system, making the island of St. Croix the perfect model to apply to end overpopulation across the globe.

 

St. Croix is primarily of West Indian descent, but is a melting pot of Caribbean cultures. A challenge will certainly be determining which messages/incentives that work for one cultural group and not another and strategically placing advertisements in the appropriate regions/media. Providing a local community event will positively impact the social challenge of our revolutionary spay and neutering program.

FiXiT Foundation is committed to working with the St. Croix Animal Welfare Network until we reach a method for bringing population neutrality for dogs. During this time we have up a sustainable network of animal groups on island -- all island vets participate in our free spay/neuter promotion. The St. Croix Animal Welfare Center will have in place its own spay/neuter clinic from which can sustain the progress made by the strategic marketing campaigns.

 

 

Stephanie Downs is an entrepreneur offering a broad range of strategic and tactical experience, including extensive work in internet marketing. In 1999, she founded MarKomm Consulting as a full service marketing consulting firm, which quickly evolved to a focus on internet marketing. Downs also brings over a decade of animal welfare experience to the foundation as a board member at the Table Mountain Animal shelter and as Director of PETA’s Corporate Affairs team.

Dr. Heckman, executive director and co-founder, brings a background in research science to FiXiT Foundation. She holds a PhD in evolutionary biology from Northwestern University with study subjects ranging from fish in North America to primates in Madagascar. Heckman also provides nearly a decade of animal welfare experience, including 7 years of animal shelter volunteer service and a year in PETA's Corporate Affairs Department before forming FiXiT Foundation.

The St. Croix Animal Welfare Center operates the animal shelter on St. Croix. Founded in 1973, the organization is committed to the humane treatment of all animals in the St. Croix community through humane education, animal protection and community service. They are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and help orphaned, abused, neglected and otherwise unwanted animals of St. Croix.