RICA president Kathy Claugherty talks about the group's adoptable iguanas at the Twin Cities Pet Expo, Feb. 21-22 in Minneapolis
One of the ways Petfinder helps our members get their pets out there is by working with organizers of the dozens of public pet expos that take place around the country. We arrange to have a Petfinder booth at an expo, and one of our shelter or rescue-group members mans it on our behalf to spread the word about Petfinder and their own organization.
The folks at Tower Show Productions, a major organizer of pet expos, has been a great partner with us in this. At its recent Twin Cities Pet Expo in Minneapolis, the St. Paul-based Resource for Iguana Care and Adoption (RICA) manned the Petfinder booth.
RICA president Kathy Claugherty sent us this report after the expo:
The Pet Expo was a tremendous success for RICA. We opted not to bring an iguana because of the temperature issue, but it just so happens I have a life-sized plush iguana toy and I brought that instead. We also had a folder with pictures and bios of our adoptables along with our brochure and other materials. The plush toy was a big hit! It enabled me to show how big they get in a non-threatening way.
I can't tell you how many people told me they found their pet on Petfinder. Everyone who talked to us said they love it. One woman has Petfinder as her home page!Thanks to Kathy and the other RICA volunteers for helping to spread the word about Petfinder (and for all their great work on behalf of homeless iguanas)!
We networked with many of the local humane societies who are finding that people are starting to drop off their pet iguanas at the shelters. Many times they are not set up for herps, nor do they have the right information about how to take care of an iguana. We can now supply these folks with quality care information and work toward finding adopters for their homeless iguanas.
We even had a woman volunteer to foster after talking to me about RICA. She is a Certified Vet Tech who has had an iguana before and is willing to foster a special-needs iguana. This is huge!
We are deeply grateful for Petfinder's sponsorship at the Pet Expo.
Thank you very much!
Kathy
Kathy uses a stuffed iguana to demonstrate how big igs can become
How can I sign up my organization to do this? Cleveland, OH had an expo put on by Tower Show Productions and this opportunity was not made available to us. Please advise!