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Pay It Forward, The Animal Edition


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How do you decide how many stupid, asinine, ridiculous smiley's you're going to put? Do you just keep clicking it until your finger gets tired? Until your ADD forces you to move the mouse? Until you get sick of typing /icon?
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How do you decide how many stupid, asinine, ridiculous smiley's you're going to put? Do you just keep clicking it until your finger gets tired? Until your ADD forces you to move the mouse? Until you get sick of typing /icon?
how do you decide which posts to flame? it was a joke, chrozzo once posted " :club::4h:ts:D :D" to a post of mine which he enjoyed.I was reciprocating. go away.
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In the bay area, one thing that some commuters liked to do to brighten a stranger's day; as they were paying their toll to cross one of the major bridges, they'd pay twice for the stranger behind them. Nice thought.One day, some friends decided to pay for the car behind them whom they knew - when they arrived at their destination, it was discovered that the toll taker had taken the second car's toll also. They did some investigation and discovered that some of the toll booth operators were pocketing the "gift" and not passing it on.I'm just skeptical that the pay it forward folks > people who just take the gift card and don't pay it forward

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Ok, I own two dogs and love animals very much. In fact, I am a primary investor in an online pet supplies and products company which was started last year. I make money off of the pet industry but yet I have never donated a single dollar to any animal charities or shelters. I don't have a black heart, I do donate a percentage of my income to various charities or causes. I just feel it more important to help out people in my community and church and family and friends rather then animals. I think that it is every animal owners responsibility to take care of their animals and make sure that they spay and neuter their animals if they are not fit to take care of the offspring and make sure they find good homes.Yes, the people that shop at Petsmart are your target demographic, but my guess would be that anyone who is willing to donate because of your pay it forward, would've already. Or, they already do some type of charitable work for animals. What I'm saying is I don't think you will be able to reach a broad enough audience and you will just be spinning your wheels. I really think you are thinking on too much of a small scale. You are going to invest a lot of time and some money into getting the site started but yet you will only be issuing 5-10 gift cards. You may get a very small number of people to visit the site but how many people do you actually think would pay it forward? How many people have the time and dedication that you have to go and buy gift cards, and print a short message and go to their local pet store and randomly tape this on the back of items.These days with people loosing their houses and gas prices going through the roof and with the US quite possibly facing a recession I don't think you are going to tap into the general public, which is where you really want to hit.If I were you I'd try to go direct to some of the manufactures of pet products and supplies go to the corporate offices of Petsmart, Petco. Go to the companies that are making the most money off of the pet industry and find a way to get them involved. Maybe get one of the pet food manufactures to print a $5 dollar donation ticket on their bags and the customer can cut it out and send it in with the name of the charity or shelter that they want it to be donated to. Something along those lines I think would utilize your time and efforts with the possibility of better results.You need to think big in order to achieve big results. If all you're looking for is to help your local shelter then go and volunteer your time there.Maybe I rambled on a bit. I really do hope you are successful but I just think that you need to think bigger if you really want to make a difference.

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For any animal lovers out there who are interested, here are a couple of those "click and help" links:http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickTo....faces?siteId=3http://pets.care2.com/As far as the OP, I have a pretty cynical view of human beings in general, so my inclination is to say that there is a small chance this will work. I tend to fall in line with the already expressed opinions that you might have more success with running some kind of "event" for this cause or that your money would be better spent just donating directly to a shelter or wherever yourself.With that said, if you do put this together, I sincerely hope it becomes a success.

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For those of you who are not "dog people", I would like to issue you a challenge. Get the book "Dog Days" by Jon Katz. See how much fulfillment can come to one person by finding a companion who can be a lifetime friend. My mother has trained dogs for many years now, and I would say most of you would be amazed by the enrichment you can have with a great dog.
Marley and Me kicks Dog Days' ass.
Ok, I own two dogs and love animals very much. In fact, I am a primary investor in an online pet supplies and products company which was started last year. I make money off of the pet industry but yet I have never donated a single dollar to any animal charities or shelters. I don't have a black heart, I do donate a percentage of my income to various charities or causes. I just feel it more important to help out people in my community and church and family and friends rather then animals. I think that it is every animal owners responsibility to take care of their animals and make sure that they spay and neuter their animals if they are not fit to take care of the offspring and make sure they find good homes.Yes, the people that shop at Petsmart are your target demographic, but my guess would be that anyone who is willing to donate because of your pay it forward, would've already. Or, they already do some type of charitable work for animals. What I'm saying is I don't think you will be able to reach a broad enough audience and you will just be spinning your wheels. I really think you are thinking on too much of a small scale. You are going to invest a lot of time and some money into getting the site started but yet you will only be issuing 5-10 gift cards. You may get a very small number of people to visit the site but how many people do you actually think would pay it forward? How many people have the time and dedication that you have to go and buy gift cards, and print a short message and go to their local pet store and randomly tape this on the back of items.These days with people loosing their houses and gas prices going through the roof and with the US quite possibly facing a recession I don't think you are going to tap into the general public, which is where you really want to hit.If I were you I'd try to go direct to some of the manufactures of pet products and supplies go to the corporate offices of Petsmart, Petco. Go to the companies that are making the most money off of the pet industry and find a way to get them involved. Maybe get one of the pet food manufactures to print a $5 dollar donation ticket on their bags and the customer can cut it out and send it in with the name of the charity or shelter that they want it to be donated to. Something along those lines I think would utilize your time and efforts with the possibility of better results.You need to think big in order to achieve big results. If all you're looking for is to help your local shelter then go and volunteer your time there.Maybe I rambled on a bit. I really do hope you are successful but I just think that you need to think bigger if you really want to make a difference.
Spot on.
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Marley and Me kicks Dog Days' ass.Spot on.
Can we agree the majority of the books Katz has done are great? I just got done rereading Dog Days and it was on my mind.Of course we could agree to disagree, and I'm ok knowing you'll disagree to that.
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Thanks for all of the feedback, both positive and negative... I'd like to think this is at least a reasonably fair sample of society, even if it's too small of one to be statistically significant.To run over a few things...Status of the program - I'm going to put something on the website requesting comments detailing where you found the card, what you did with it, and anything else related... I know not everyone will post, but hopefully a few will and give me an idea about if it's being at all successful.Suggestions on other ways to help shelters - I do volunteer and make direct donations. I also do rescues from my house, assist everyone in my workcenter with various animal related issues, and do informal behavioral training for friends. I'm trying to spark something new here... the time required isn't all that great, since the website is simply a blog with links to other shelters.The way I see it, worst case scenario is that I've given a little bit of money to people that have pets and are at least somewhat interested in taking good care of them... that's not so terrible, really. Ideally, it'll get some notice and the idea will spread, and some people with money to donate but no real motivation or direction on how to do so will take advantage of the idea. As far as the status of the project goes, I've picked up 7 commitments already in Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Not bad for 24 hours, I guess.Buckeye, you're definitely one of the ones I had in mind when I made the post... I was most interested initially in hearing feedback from you, speedz, and DDIM. I'll keep you updated on the plans... probably won't be much progress for the next 10 days or so, because I'm headed to Dublin on Monday!

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Can we agree the majority of the books Katz has done are great? I just got done rereading Dog Days and it was on my mind.Of course we could agree to disagree, and I'm ok knowing you'll disagree to that.
"I just got done rereading...."Classic
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Can we agree the majority of the books Katz has done are great? I just got done rereading Dog Days and it was on my mind.Of course we could agree to disagree, and I'm ok knowing you'll disagree to that.
I do like his books, and we can agree to disagree on which are better.vonteego3, good luck. I would just keep trying to think of ways to make it as simple and easy as possible for people who find the cash to make their donation and pass on the message to their friends. Also, the website is a good tool for turning this into a viral thing...it could help to have prominent links for forwarding the address and core message to friends.
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I am interested in this and if you get it set up and see success I would myself do what you are doing but do it in my area and snd them to the site and such. A lot of our large grocery stores always have a large receptacle at the exits to put pet food for local shelters in and I always buy some food and place it in there and for the most part it is always pretty full so I think people do care and this is another interesting idea to help even more.

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if you really want to help, Fly to Holland on Oct 4th.We're having a fundraiser. We're saving up for a new Ambulance.I work at the Animal Rescue service, and drive the ambulance.Your intentions are good, but 10,- won't help anybody.. sorry..that's feeds one dog, 2 days..Pay it Forward, only seems to work in Dramastic cases.Do hope you succeed though..

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if you really want to help, Fly to Holland on Oct 4th.We're having a fundraiser. We're saving up for a new Ambulance.I work at the Animal Rescue service, and drive the ambulance.Your intentions are good, but 10,- won't help anybody.. sorry..that's feeds one dog, 2 days..Pay it Forward, only seems to work in Dramastic cases.Do hope you succeed though..
Better than nothing though...We give to the humane society every year. Not a lot, maybe $50, but it's still $50. I could keep that $50 and play poker with it. Which is better for the animals? 10 days worth of food or 0 days worth of food?
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if you really want to help, Fly to Holland on Oct 4th.We're having a fundraiser. We're saving up for a new Ambulance.I work at the Animal Rescue service, and drive the ambulance.Your intentions are good, but 10,- won't help anybody.. sorry..that's feeds one dog, 2 days..Pay it Forward, only seems to work in Dramastic cases.Do hope you succeed though..
OK, I'll fly to holland.
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i was inspired by this idea so i decided to do my part. wanted to do it for some higher stakes too. went to my local petco the other day. walked around the store looking for some good locations. found the dog food section. took out one of my $25 best buy gift cards and taped it to the back of one of the packs. forgot to bring some notes about the website with me but whatever, it should still work. i had one more gift card which i taped to the lizard tank. was walking around the store after that and i saw the fish section. they had tons of fish in these little tanks. decided that was unacceptable, any animal lover would. there was a store guy near the fish so i told him i wanted to buy three turtles. told him to go collect them and ring them up for me. he seemed exited about my pending purchase and said it would take a few minutes to get them in cages and what not. i said "perfect." after he left to get the turtles i grabbed a bag and one of those fish catching nets from nearby. opened up a tank and filled the bag with water. then i started collecting fish from a few of the tanks. got a wide variety. some kid walks down my aisle. i try to look casual. he stands there looking at some fish and the ones im collecting for my bag. i say to him "hey kid theyre giving away free iguanas over there." pointed to the other side of the store and he runs off toward it. i had a big bag full of fish. decided that was enough. looked around to see if any employees were around. there were some near the front of the store so i couldnt go out that way. i walked around and saw a back door with an alarm. knew what i had to do.went through the door and starting running around to the front of the store. got in my car and drove away. drove to a nearby lake. walked up to the shore and said "ok fishes, you have been liberated." opened the bag and dumped them into the lake.

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This actually reminds me of a scam, where someone sends you a letter with $0.05 taped to it (5 cents).Something about sending out 5 cents to 10 people. A triangle scheme I think. Not saying this is one of those, it just reminds me of it.Oh, and obv I just kept the 5 cents.

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if you really want to help, Fly to Holland on Oct 4th.We're having a fundraiser. We're saving up for a new Ambulance.I work at the Animal Rescue service, and drive the ambulance.Your intentions are good, but 10,- won't help anybody.. sorry..that's feeds one dog, 2 days..Pay it Forward, only seems to work in Dramastic cases.Do hope you succeed though..
1. Your capitalization is perplexing. Not being a native English speaker is no excuse.2. $10 feeds one dog in a shelter for way more than two days. Plus he's hoping that people will donate more than that and tell their friends, so...yeah.
triangle scheme
So close, yet so far away.
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if you really want to help, Fly to Holland on Oct 4th.We're having a fundraiser. We're saving up for a new Ambulance.I work at the Animal Rescue service, and drive the ambulance.Your intentions are good, but 10,- won't help anybody.. sorry..that's feeds one dog, 2 days..Pay it Forward, only seems to work in Dramastic cases.Do hope you succeed though..
I love this wordand I love Holmes Monaco
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