Animal shelters across the United States, and even the globe, face a grave problem where the number of cats taken in each day far exceeds the number adopted out. Many entering these shelters were born as feral, unowned cats, while others were abandoned on the street. As a result, the volume of cats found and placed into animal shelters is enormous. Even worse, getting these cats adopted into good homes takes time, making the population of cats housed in shelters incredibly high. Unfortunately, many shelters are confronted with a difficult choice: what do they do with these cats who can’t find homes? Some shelters will even euthanize cats in situations of overcrowding. If this continues, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cats will lose their lives every year. This thesis aims to provide greater education on this problem to improve the pace of both incoming and outgoing cat populations in shelters with the goal of eliminating the need to euthanize shelter cats entirely.

RESEARCH METHODS

The research contained in this chapter comes from a variety of methods, including a thematic literature review of relevant sources, case studies, and visual analyses of those campaigns analyzed in the case studies.

A literature review is a crucial piece of research that provides a deep understanding of existing research and progress made on this very topic. The literature review investigates the overall question of why shelters are overcrowded by looking at it from multiple angles. First, why are feral community cat populations so large and what is being done to address the issue? Second, what factors impact a cat’s length of stay in a shelter before adoption or euthanasia? Finally, what methods could be explored to improve a cat’s adoption chances?

Based on the research conducted in the literature review, an additional question was raised: how do animal shelters and advocate groups engage with the community to gain support, and how effective is their approach? To answer this question and further understand the efforts these organizations put forth to address these issues, several case studies and visual analyses will be conducted with the intention of inspiring the design of this thesis’ visual solutions.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Cats have become a mainstay pet, or companion animal, in the homes of millions of people across not just the United States, but the world at large. These small, furry predators first made their way into the hearts of people as a means of pest control to help keep down the number of rats and other rodents found in barns, food stores, and other such places where humans generally would want to keep food and materials safe from damage. Over time, the human attachment to cats has grown significantly, vying for dominance against dogs as the most popular companion animal to own and care for (Nagasawa, Takumi, et al. 1). However, domestic cats are resilient creatures. They can survive in many adverse conditions and are extremely adaptable to their surroundings, which can create a problem for municipal animal shelters.
Shelters across the United States and the rest of the world, face a problem where the influx of cats entering their facilities greatly exceeds their capacity to see them adopted out. This creates an enormous strain on resources and leads euthanasia of numerous cats throughout the country. Roughly 2-3 million cats are taken into shelters every year in the United States alone, with more than half of them being euthanized. The death of millions of cats is largely due to overcrowded shelters, which means a severe reduction in their quality of life, with many cats suffering a wide range of physical and psychological distress. Feral behavior and disease are common causes for euthanasia, especially in overpopulated shelters (Levy et al. 269). This means these cats end up losing their lives well before they get a chance to be adopted and find homes.
To curb this problem and give each cat in a shelter the greatest chance at finding a future with a human family, it is important to assess the situation from a variety of perspectives. First, there is the massive population of cats entering shelters in the first place. These include cats that are relinquished by former owners, to free-roaming cats that are picked up off the street. The second factor is the situation within shelters themselves. For these cats to make it out of a shelter, they need to be adopted. Some cats, however, struggle to find homes and spend far too long living in a shelter, unable to find someone to adopt them. The reasons for this range wildly from physical characteristics to behavioral traits, each having a distinct influence on the rate in which these cats are adopted. The influx of cats into shelters far outpaces that of the output, and as such it is important to address the problem at both ends. The research conducted that follows showcases various studies that investigate not only methods that aim to reduce free-roaming cat populations in the wild, but also examine reasons why some cats take longer to adopt than others. In addition, an overview of the benefits that humans can gain from adopting cats is also examined as a possible viewpoint for further strategizing ways to help find these cats homes.
When it comes to domestic cats, there are generally two kinds: “indoor” cats and “free-roaming” community cats. Indoor cats are those, as the name suggests, that are housed and monitored or cared for by humans. As such, these domestic cats do not pose much of a threat to their environments and are largely dependent on their owners for their food, water, shelter, and other survival or emotional needs. In contrast, “free-roaming” cats are those not necessarily tethered to a house or other physical human abode. Some of these cats do include owned cats whose owners allow them to wander outside of the home. The majority of these cats, though, are made up of “feral cats” who have no owner and are entirely dependent on themselves for survival (Spehar and Wolf).
A person walking down the street of any city in any country throughout the world has a relatively high chance of seeing or coming across a free-roaming, unowned stray cat. That cat might be lazily basking in the sun or strutting down the sidewalk. The fact of the matter is that cats are everywhere. These unowned cats, or “community cats,” as they will be referred to from here onwards, live on the streets and survive to the best of their abilities. Given their natural survival instincts, it is no wonder that community cat populations have grown to staggering numbers all over the globe. There are several reasons for the population of community cats being so high. As previously mentioned, one reason is that cat owners will let their pets roam freely outdoors, while others will abandon unwanted cats or kittens in an alley or on the side of a road. This only makes up for a small portion of their numbers, however. Cats are also well-known for their impressive reproductive capabilities. Community cats, since most have not been spayed or neutered, are the main source of kittens born on the streets, making them the main source of cats that are captured and placed into animal shelters all over the world, greatly increasing the burden on these facilities (Levy et al. 269).
But why is an overpopulation of community cats a problem? It’s not just because they are the main source of cats coming into a shelter. In fact, large populations of community cats have a direct impact on the environment they live in as well; whether that is the quality of their environments, a threat to existing animals in that area, as a nuisance or hygienic problem for the people living in those locations. “Unowned stray cats or free-roaming cats cause hygiene, public health or biodiversity conservation problems by the predation of wild species” (Mitsui et al. 1). As Kana Mitsui and the authors of a study in Tokyo, Japan on the effects of a community cat program point out, cats have a significant impact on the world around them. Looking at the first point brought up is the fact that community cats can cause hygiene problems if their populations are out of control. Many cats will be destructive as they mark their territory, get into places they probably should not be, and become a general nuisance to the people living in those areas. For instance, residents of areas where known overcrowded community cat populations exist have expressed that these cats are pests.
A study in Guelph, Canada was conducted where many participants complained that community cats would urinate or spray their homes, an action that cats take when marking territory as their own and is extremely potent in smell. In addition, these community cats were found to dig into and rummage through residents’ garbage, spreading the contents all over, while other cats would defecate on their properties. These actions alone present a hygiene issue, where the larger the number of cats, the greater the concern. Other complaints were recorded regarding noise, where cats would fight, mate or otherwise cry, adding to the overall problem that stems from an overpopulation of community cats in their area (Van Patter et al. 50).
Further problems, as cited earlier by Kana Mitsui et al., include impacts on local wildlife and ecosystems. The aforementioned problems regarding environmental hygiene in the form of spray, defecation, and destructive behavior are not the only difficulties that can occur. At their core, cats are incredible hunters, and as such, they can be seen as an invasive species. Small prey, such as rodents or birds that would normally otherwise be the targets of local predators such as owls or foxes, are being targeted and hunted by community cats to the point that the area’s native predators are losing out on an important food source (Van Patter et al. 50). If left unchecked, the local prey populations will greatly diminish to the point of threatening the lives of these native predators.
All of this is to say that one of the primary sources of cats coming into shelters, and one of the root causes of the overpopulation of cats in those shelters, is the fact that there is an overpopulation of cats on the streets. As such, one of the most effective ways to reduce the strain on overcrowded animal shelters is to reduce the number of cats being surrendered in the first place. To do this, various programs across the globe have been instituted.

For the last several decades, cities and humane societies around the world have worked together to find new and innovative ways to humanely control community cat populations. In this instance, the concept of a “humane” method of control does not include culling. In other words, the cats were not captured and unilaterally euthanized as part of the program. Instead, one of the most popular and apparently successful methods for reducing community cat populations is the use of what is referred to as the trap-neuter-return (TNR) program. TNR programs are designed specifically to “stop community cats from reproducing, thereby reducing their numbers over time” (Spehar and Wolf). In these instances, volunteers and local shelters work together to locate and trap community cats in humane ways meant to do no harm to the animals. Once captured, they are taken to a clinic where they are not only sterilized (i.e. spayed or neutered), but are also usually given medical treatment that usually includes vaccinations against rabies and other common illnesses or parasites prevalent among community cats. Once the treatment has been successfully completed, in some instances cats have their ears tipped — a practice that removes a small portion of one of their ears for easy identification — and then they are returned to the area in which they were originally captured (Ramírez Riveros and González-Lagos 2). One other step that is sometimes necessary in these programs does involve the euthanasia of cats that that are deemed to be “suffering” from injuries or illness to the point that it is considered a detriment to not only the environment but the cats themselves (Kreisler et al. 2). That is not the outright goal of these programs, and it should be noted that more lethal methods of population control referred to as “culling” of community cats involves killing them through shooting, poisoning, or other means. Typically, however, these approaches are considered ethically suspect and highly controversial (Ramírez Riveros and González-Lagos 2).
TNR programs in locations such as Key Largo, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and even overseas in Tokyo, Japan, have shown improvements shelter cat intake rates as a direct relation to the TNR efforts in those areas. For more detailed information regarding these programs and their impacts, see the full Thesis PDF document, starting on page 21.
TNR programs have shown to be successful, albeit over time, in reducing community cat population in areas where such programs have been given appropriate attention. These types of programs, however, require more than just the involvement of shelters and volunteers to be successful. It is also important to both inform the human community regarding the nature of these programs while providing in-depth training to all stake holders. This education in turn aids in the success and effectiveness of these programs. In each of the TNR programs previously mentioned, community members were contacted, then follow-up discussions, surveys, and questionnaires were administered to understand how people both perceive the issue of community cats, and then to educate them concerning such programs. The significance and importance of community engagement cannot be overstated.
The San Francisco Bay Trail area TNR program, for instance, also involved an education campaign designed to inform residents and visitors regarding the trail program. As part of this initiative, signs were placed along the trail explaining the merits and details of the program, and brochures were distributed to local venues with the same purpose in mind. In addition, these brochures were placed in waterproof kiosks, which were attached to those signs placed along the trail and given out at various events held by volunteers. All this effort was designed for the expressed purpose of informing the public about the details of the program, and to provide a greater awareness of what was being done, how it was being conducted, and what the public themselves can do to help. One of the main aspects of this information campaign was also to discourage people from abandoning their cats on this trail, but rather, if they must give up their cats, that they take them to one of the local shelters where they can be properly nurtured (Spehar and Wolf 3).
In a similar fashion, the programs in Tokyo, Japan, as well as the two aforementioned programs in Florida, U.S.A., involved community education and engagement. In Alachua County, for example, staff and volunteers provided informational postcards that explained the TNR program to both residents and businesses within the target zone periodically over the course of their two-year program. In addition, brochures and other literature were handed out to businesses, churches, and similar locations where people congregate. Additionally, members of the study itself, in partnership with volunteers, traveled around the study zone and spoke directly with residents, informing them of the program and providing a clear picture of its purpose (Levy et al. 270). Both this and the TNR program conducted in the San Francisco Bay Trail area were largely successful, and each of the study’s respective authors felt that community education played a large part in this.
Additional research has been conducted on the merits of community education and outreach on the success of TNR programs, and more detailed information can be found in the full Thesis PDF document, starting on page 29.
What this research shows is that community engagement and education is an extremely important factor relative to the success and effectiveness of TNR programs. To reduce the influx of community cats pouring into animal shelters, strategies that discourage abandonment of owned cats, as well as humanely reducing the populations of community cats, will have long-lasting effects, in addition to improving the health and well-being of these same animals.

LENGTH OF STAY
The amount of time a cat spends in a shelter before being adopted, or in the worst case euthanized, is referred to as their “length of stay” or LOS. This LOS is determined by a variety of factors ranging from physical traits to behavioral traits. To better arm municipal shelters with strategies needed to improve and shorten shelter cats’ LOS, it is important to understand why some cats take longer to adopt than others. In addition, it is also important to provide education to the people who might be interested in adopting these animals on the benefits of owning a cat, as well as the responsibilities that come with being a cat owner, thereby hopefully curbing returns after adoption. The following portion of this report examines the physical and behavioral traits of shelter cats and the influence these factors have on LOS, in addition to providing knowledge regarding some of the potential benefits of cat ownership, specifically emphasizing responsibility.

A cat’s LOS in a shelter can be influenced by a number of factors, with physical traits being one of the most immediately apparent. Such traits include the cat’s age, their breed, gender, or coat color, just to name a few affective factors. People who seek to adopt a cat will usually have a variety of expectations and traits a cat must possess before deciding on which animal to adopt. An examination of different physical traits is an important first step towards better understanding what factors influences a cat’s LOS.

To start, age seems to have among the most significant impact on LOS. Many studies have indicated that kittens are adopted the fastest out of any age group, with adults and senior cats (i.e. cats 10 years of age or older) taking the longest. For instance, a study of records spanning between January 2008 and September 2012 from the Tompkins County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TCSPCA) in New York State, U.S.A., looked at the records of 5,659 cats adopted during that time frame. Age at this shelter was categorized by kittens, juveniles, young adults, adults, and geriatric adults. The results of the study showed, distinctly, that kittens were adopted far more quicky than any other cat, with an LOS ranging from less than one day all the way through 730 days. It was found that LOS increased as age of the cat increased, “with cats in the oldest age category remaining at the shelter for 163 days, on average” which is “more than 6 times long as kittens” (Brown and Morgan 172-173). It is likely that an influencing factor here is that older cats are set in their ways by the time they reach senior cat status, and finding homes for them is far more difficult than it is when placing kittens, who are more sociable and friendly. Other studies have investigated age as an influencing factor on LOS for shelter cats, with one showing that kittens took longer than adults to be adopted. However, the authors, Janke et al., noted that the reason behind a kitten’s LOS being longer than an adult was partially due to the amount of time kittens spent weaning before being put up for adoption. In this case, their admission dates and adoption dates are much farther apart since they were too young to be placed for adoption, whereas adult cats can usually be put up for adoption quickly (47).
Age is not the only physical trait that has a direct impact on a cat’s LOS. Coat color is perhaps the next most influential physical trait, if not the determining factor, for some people who are looking for pets. In all likelihood, when presented with the topic of a cat’s color and their potential success rates of adoption, the color that is the most predominant in most people’s minds is going to be black. Several studies have been conducted on what is considered the “black cat bias” phenomenon to determine if there really is a bias, and some of those studies have shown that, yes, in fact, black cats sometimes do take longer to adopt than other cats of differing coat colors. This is not always the case, however, but it seems to be consistent.
A study published in April 2019 by Haylie D. Jones and Christian L. Hart of the Department of Psychology and Philosophy at the Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX, U.S.A., examined black cat bias to see if it exists, and if so, to understand how such a bias came to exist in the first place. Understanding the sources of this bias may help provide new knowledge and give insights into new strategies for shelters that are working hard to find homes for the many black cats languishing in shelters around the word. Jones and Hart conducted a study with 101 participants who were given a test designed to rate a cat’s appeal by viewing images of 20 randomized individuals, 10 of which were black with the rest being random colors. The photographs were taken in neutral expressions and positions to reduce any potential bias based on perceived personality traits. Later, participants were also asked to complete surveys meant to measure religious beliefs, superstitious beliefs, as well as racial prejudices (Jones and Hart 1201).
The results were most telling. In general, participants mostly viewed black cats as being more aggressive and less friendly in comparison to their lighter colored counterparts.
It was considered a possibility that religious, superstitious, or even racial prejudices might influence these impressions. However, when reviewing the results of these surveys, it was found that superstition had more of a direct impact than either religious or racial prejudices on the perception of black cats being more aggressive. These results also indicated that participants felt it was more difficult to read the emotions of black cats over other cats simply because of their dark features (Jones and Hart 1203). This study painted a fascinating picture that showed that a black cat bias does appear to exist, even if only in the group who participated in the study. However, it is a common misconception that black cats are more aggressive and unfriendly, likely a result of superstitions held by people over the centuries. Black, as a color, is often regarded in negative ways throughout history, associated with evil and death (Jones and Hart 1199). This makes it clear that shelters still, even to this day, have a long way to go toward to dispel these widely held beliefs.
While age and coat color are definitive physical traits that influence a cat’s LOS before adoption, another common set of traits include the cat’s breed and gender. In terms of breed, cats have a wide range of ancestry ranging from common mixed breeds to exotic. The previously mentioned TCSPCA study in Upstate New York included breeds such as American Shorthair, Manx, Domestic Shorthair, Maine Coon, Siamese, and more. It was directly observed from the data that unique breeds of cats, such as the Maine Coon, Siamese, Persian, and Ragdolls were adopted much more quickly than mixed or cats of other breeds, while there was no major difference found in adoption rates between short, medium, or longhair cat breeds (Brown and Morgan 178). Another study conducted in Guelph, Canada, through the Guelph Humane Society (GHS) in 2014 also reinforces this observation. In that study, it was found that Domestic Medium and Long-Haired cats were adopted 19% faster than Domestic Short Haired cats, and “exotic” breeds such as Maine Coons and Siamese were adopted 64% faster than any other breed (Janke et al. 47).
Gender of the cat may also play a part in LOS times, though evidence supporting one gender over another remains unclear due to contrasting study results. The study in Guelph, Canada, showed that the LOS for females was 20% lower than male cats, with neuter status playing almost no noticeable role in LOS (Janke et al. 48). Meanwhile, the study in Sydney, Australia, showed no noticeable or significant difference in the adoption rates between male versus female (Miller et al. 4). In contrast, the study conducted at the TCSPCA, Brown and Morgan found that male cats were more quickly adopted resulting in a shorter LOS (177). Considering such contrasting results, it currently seems unclear if there is a definitive difference between male over female adoption rates or vice-versa. Resultantly, further study may be required.

Given that physical traits have shown to have a distinct impact on a cat’s LOS in shelters before being adopted, being sent to another facility, or euthanized, it stands to reason that personality is also going to have a substantial impact on adoption success rates. Cats originating from the street are liable to be shy, aggressive, or otherwise unruly, while cats surrendered by previous owners might adapt to new people and other pets more readily. The following section investigates a variety of behavioral traits that influence a shelter cat’s LOS as well as examines a possible method for countering potential problems.

A person walking into an animal shelter for the first time looking who is for a cat, not only will look at coat color, breed, sex, or age, but also how well they get along with the animal. After all, if the cat shows signs that it will be difficult to interact with, most people may pass that cat by. Many seeking to adopt a cat have even cited the cats’ openness and friendliness as a key factor when deciding who to adopt (Grant and Warrior 77). As such, understanding cats and their behavior can go a long way towards finding new strategies to help them find homes.
Cats are incredibly sensitive animals, and as such they are highly susceptible to stress, with their behavior usually reflecting this. That is especially true when the cat is forced into a new environment in which they are unfamiliar. A high level of stress can make cats aggressive or antisocial, directly impacting their adoptability. This, however, is an excellent opportunity for greater education for potential adopters, as a study on cats rescued from hoarded environments showed that even cats with high stress and aggression levels showed a marked improvement in behavior, resulting in reduced stress, aggression, and antisocial behaviors after a month of time (Jacobson et al 240). This implies that cats, being as sensitive as they are, need time to adapt to their surroundings while also being given the proper amount of care. The same study showed many cats who were initially considered antisocial, hostile, or destructive were later considered “supersocial” or “social” after about a month in their new homes (Jacobson et al. 241).
Shelters looking to find new ways and strategies for improving adoption rates will want to look at potential predictors that might indicate a cat’s adoption success or failure. One such predictor is known as slow blinking. The act of slow blinking is a behavior that has been fostered in many cats when interacting with humans and occurs when both parties engage in “a sequence of prolonged eye narrowing movements”. It is believed this behavior is a “form of positive communication for cats, who are more likely to approach a previously unfamiliar human after such interactions” (Humphrey et al.). The reason this is significant is because this is a common action amongst domestic cats and can be a telltale sign of a cat’s willingness to interact with people. A study was created in Sussex, England, to test how much shelter cats reacted to human-initiated slow blinking in comparison to those who maintained a neutral expression. In partnership with The National Cat Adoption Centre in the same city, 18 cats were filmed when research was conducted. The trial procedure itself involved the experimenter sitting in front of a screen door separating them from the cat in a controlled enclosure and making repeated attempts to interact with their cats through slow blinking — the act of slowly narrowing and closing their eyes towards the cat. A baseline was also created through control trials where the experimenter sat in front of the enclosure in the same way but maintaining a neutral expression. Each trial lasted for 60 seconds.
The results of this experiments demonstrated a potential link between cats’ willingness to engage in slow blinking behavior and the speed of their adoption. According to the authors, “there was a significant negative correlation between the number and duration of cat eye closures in the slow blinking trials and the days before being reserved [for adoption]” (Humphrey et al.). What this translates to is that the more cats showed a willingness to slow blink in response to human-initiated slow blinking, the less time it took for them to be adopted. The authors also noted that cats who showed signs of anxiety around humans slow blinked more than those who were more comfortable. They theorize that slow blinking may be a form of bonding in cats, and the reason anxious cats performed this action more is because they were trying to bond more with humans, and this their stress levels would decrease more throughout the study (Humphrey et al.). In each case, though, it was shown that slow blinking had a significant impact on the speed of their adoption, making this a potentially key factor for shelters to consider when devising adoption strategies.
Initial training sessions involved using a charged clicker in close proximity to the subject cat, and this was immediately followed by presenting food as a reward. This was done to set the precedent that the clicker would be associated with food, and this action was repeated multiple times in the first two sessions (Grant and Warrior 79). During the subsequent sessions the distance from the human to the cat was gradually increased, forcing the cat to move toward the trainer if they wanted the food reward. Sometimes the trainer would use vocal prompts in the form of calling the cat’s name while also using the clicker to further reinforce the desired behavior from the cat. When the cat was close enough to the trainer, it was then presented with food. This format was repeated throughout the course of the test until the cats were coaxed from the back of their enclosures to the front (Grant and Warrior 80).
The results after two weeks showed a significant improvement in cats’ behaviors. In terms of exploratory behavior, prior to the clicker training, most cats expressed a severe lack of interest, with several cats doing basically no exploring. Post-training, however, there was a massive increase in exploration in most of the cats in the study, indicating that this training had a positive effect on the cats’ welfare and mental health due to lowered stress levels. Inactivity was greatly reduced thanks to this clicker training as well. Most of the cats spent their time prior to this training being sedentary, but after training most of the cats in the test showed an increase in overall activity. Finally, the authors noted that cats after this training spent far more time at the front of their cages or enclosures, where previously most of them spent time in the back, in hiding. This further indicates a decrease in stress levels and coincides with improved welfare, which may also greatly increase their adoption chances (Grant and Warrior 81). This clicker training is a strategy that, if employed in shelters across the United States and elsewhere to combat anxious or unsociable behaviors, may aid shelters find good homes and people to adopt these cats more quickly.
Slow blinking in cats and clicker training of unsociable cats in shelters both provide new ways to look at predictors and strategies for helping find them homes. It can be said that a slow blinking cat is well adjusted to their environment or is seeking affirmation that everything is OK. Returning the action or even initiating it from a human’s perspective may greatly increase the interactivity between people and cats in shelters. Likewise, if clicker training was employed in shelters on cats who are particularly timid, fearful, or inactive for long stretches of time, improvements in their behavioral and activity levels could see a marked increase, with the end goal of greatly improving their adoption rates.
Also, regarding strategies, one that could render positive results in shelter cat behavior and was studied and reported in a 2019 journal article appearing in Applied Animal Behavior Science. This study involved using a clicker to train cats as a means of helping them become more sociable. Many cats, especially those who are timid or nervous, will slowly lose their will to explore or interact with newcomers as their length of stay in shelters increases. Such environments only serve to enhance their stress levels, continually adding to their anxiety, which in turn greatly increases the threat of euthanasia due to overcrowding (Grant and Warrior 77). As part of the study, and seeking a way to combat this issue, clicker training with 12 cats was conducted over the period of two weeks in an RSPCA shelter in Oxfordshire, England. Each session saw an evaluation of the cats before and after clicker training sessions in terms of exploration, play, inactivity, and “other”.

Municipal animal shelters across the United States, as well as the rest of the world, continue to face a problem where the influx of cats entering shelters far outpaces their capacity to adopt them out. As a result, this creates a strain on resources from overcrowded shelters that leads to the euthanasia of numerous cats throughout the country and the world. To curtail this problem, it is best to understand the issue and arm shelters with the appropriate knowledge to inform future strategies.
One side of the problem lies in the number of cats coming into shelters. With community cat populations at extremely high levels, many of them are brought into shelters and often have trouble finding good homes. To reduce the number of cats coming in from the street, various programs designed to curtail the overpopulation of community cats in humane ways should be considered. Trap-neuter-return programs do just that by bringing community cats off the street, providing them with medical attention in addition to spaying or neutering, and then releasing them back into their environment. Some are even placed for adoption if they meet behavioral qualities suitable for placement. Such TNR programs have been shown that, over time, they can successfully reduce community cat populations, thereby reducing the influx of stray cats into shelters.
The other side of the problem is in the shelters and the homes of potential pet owners. Many preconceptions of cats due to age, gender, coat color, and breed have been shown to directly impact the LOS cats have in shelters before adoption, if they are adopted at all. The black cat bias, for example, is a predominant superstition, while older cats struggle to find homes due to their age. Aside from physical traits, though, are the behavioral ones, where cats that are active and friendly are adopted quickly, leaving the timid, anxious, or aggressive ones behind. Providing potential cat owners with the knowledge to properly care for even the most difficult of cats can go a long way towards adoption successes and reduced LOS. In addition, shelters can employ a variety of strategies such as clicker training and engaging in slow blinking actions to encourage more activity and trust in cats with difficult personalities, with the purpose of improving their odds of adoption. Finally, the potential emotional, social, and even physiological development benefits cannot be overstated, providing further information that can be passed on to communities in order to better educate the public on the merits of adopting a cat.
In the end, the goal is to diminish the overpopulation of animal shelters across the United States so that the flow of cats coming in does not threaten the resources and wellbeing of the cats waiting for adoption, while at the same time increasing the speed at which adoptions occur through greater knowledge and improved strategies.

CASE STUDIES & VISUAL ANALYSES

Case studies are a form of research involving a deep look at a singular event, activity, campaign, or instance in the context of the hypothesis and goal of the overall research being conducted. Through case studies, detailed information can be gleaned on the motivations and actions taken by those conducting the events studied, providing insights that will help identify common or even uncommon themes that can be applied to my visual solutions.
As part of my additional research, eight case studies will be analyzed while aiming to answer the following points:
- Who initiated and is responsible for the project?
- Summarize the project, including motivation and challenges faced.
- Project outcome.
- Identify and connect relevant elements back to your identified problem.
A visual analysis is a form of content analysis that focuses on providing a qualitative description of visual artifacts by examining objects, images, video, or other forms of visual content. The main purpose behind this form of research is to look for patterns and meanings in the visuals being analyzed to identify key themes in design and iconography. This kind of research is useful as it will help provide me with insights on the directions I will take with my own visual solutions for my identified research problem. As part of my additional research, eight visual analyses will be performed and are directly related to the case studies also being conducted as part of my research. Each visual analysis aims to provide clarity on the following:
- Visual Artifact Summary
  - Includes: visual selection overview, target audience, how it is consumed by the audience, cultural context, and interrelationship between image, form, or object and accompanying text.
- Compositional Interpretation
  - Includes: content analysis, semiotics and iconography.
- Aesthetics
  - Includes: aesthetic choices that led to the success or failure of the visual solution, and how those choices relate or connect back to your identified problem.

Campaign 01: National Feral Cat Day

In 2001, Alley Cat Allies formed National Feral Cat Day to be recognized every year on October 16, to coincide with their global initiative, Global Cat Day. While Global Cat Day is more about recognizing and embracing cats living in human communities around the world, National Feral Cat Day was specifically created as a day of action. It was Alley Cat Allies’ intent to use this day as one to inspire not just awareness and education about the problems and struggles faced by feral, unowned, and stray cats living in human communities, but also to inspire and promote action by the public at large. Community cats face a wide range of challenges living on the streets that regularly test their survival skills on a daily basis. Predators, people, disease, and so much more are a constant threat to their quality of life and wellbeing. While lethal approaches to handling unowned community cats have often been employed by municipalities across the country in the past, such tactics have declined over the years, thanks in no small part to awareness campaigns such as this. By creating a day of awareness and action, Alley Cat Allies hoped to encourage the use of far more humane methods of managing community cat populations, such as promoting trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs which have demonstrated success in reducing those populations.
Ever since its inception in 2001, National Feral Cat Day has found itself widely recognized and promoted by millions of people in not just the United States, but across the world as well. Each year, advocates—whether they be municipal animal shelters, animal rescue groups, veterinarians, individuals, or otherwise—gather and host a wide range of activities or events meant to help community cats thrive. For instance, in 2024 (over two decades since the day’s creation), two organizations in Tennessee hosted events that spayed, neutered, and vaccinated community cats at no cost to the people bringing them in. New Leash on Life and Sumner Spay Neuter Alliance spearheaded these events in the cities of Lebanon and Gallatin, Tennessee, in direct representation and honor of this day. During the events held in each city, a total of 200 cats and kittens were spayed, neutered, and vaccinated across two days (Julien). In addition, these cats were also provided with microchips, food, and more. All the while, Alley Cat Allies themselves were on the ground at these events, assisting with the activities.
Ever since its inception in 2001, National Feral Cat Day has found itself widely recognized and promoted by millions of people in not just the United States, but across the world as well. Each year, advocates—whether they be municipal animal shelters, animal rescue groups, veterinarians, individuals, or otherwise—gather and host a wide range of activities or events meant to help community cats thrive. For instance, in 2024 (over two decades since the day’s creation), two organizations in Tennessee hosted events that spayed, neutered, and vaccinated community cats at no cost to the people bringing them in. New Leash on Life and Sumner Spay Neuter Alliance spearheaded these events in the cities of Lebanon and Gallatin, Tennessee, in direct representation and honor of this day. During the events held in each city, a total of 200 cats and kittens were spayed, neutered, and vaccinated across two days (Julien). In addition, these cats were also provided with microchips, food, and more. All the while, Alley Cat Allies themselves were on the ground at these events, assisting with the activities.
The visual solutions utilized by Alley Cat Allies include a wide range of options that include everything from an infographic, the logo for Global Cat Day and National Feral Cat Day, as well as a variety of advertisement images and promotional materials. The infographic, for instance, is presented in a well-formatted design that places a photograph of an orange and white cat front and center with related written content surrounding it, forcing the viewer’s eye to focus on it first and branch outwards from there (Fig. 1).
Meanwhile, the Global Cat Day logo and its accompanying National Feral Cat Day wording on the bottom, provides a look at how Alley Cat Allies wants the world to look at this annual set of events (Fig. 2). The colors chosen for the logo include a warm blue, deep green, white, and a golden yellow color. In this case, the golden yellow is used to emphasize the warmth of the cat and have it stand in sharp contrast to the blue background, white text, and green of the heart-shaped map of Earth. The logo also makes use of two major symbols: the heart-shaped Earth and the cat itself. The cat is a simple shadow shape, illustrated and placed in the center of the logo to make it a focal point. It could easily be looking at the viewer or back at the logo itself. The golden yellow color imparts positivity, warmth, and familiarity, as yellow can be used to depict these feelings in design. The heart-shaped map of Earth, on the other hand, represents not only the point that community cats are a global concern, but also something people should care about. I feel the heart-shaped Earth represents the community feeling of working together to help cats, feral or otherwise.
Alley Cat Allies also made use of a range of promotional materials on social media or their website that aided in their advertising of National Feral Cat Day. All of the designs showcase a minimalistic design, with a photograph standing prominent and accented by limited text, allowing that photograph to tell more of the story. The first shows a large male cat sitting outside on a street, while the text beside him celebrates the event using large text and the logo (Fig. 3). The next two graphics follow a similar, although even more minimalist approach, with each of these examples also adding context to the photograph by indicating the cat’s given name by the residents of the community they live near. While one of the cats does not yet have a name (Fig. 4), it was still shown to reside in Lebanon, Tennessee, and the fact that it is a kitten will provide a sense of care and empathy in viewers. The other graphic (Fig. 5) shows a close-up of a cat named Muffin in the same location. Like the previous example, the photograph tells most of the story, while his name and location add to it, showing he is a part of that community.
Finally, the last graphic in this analysis showcases a behind-the-scenes look of National Feral Cat Day in Lebanon, Tennessee (Fig. 6). Once again, the photograph takes center stage as the star of the graphic with the added text simply being backup characters. In this case, the text tells the audience that what they’re seeing is action inspired by National Feral Cat Day during one of the events in Tennessee in 2024. We see three volunteers working with one of several cat carriers in a warmly lit room and a banner representing Global Cat Day standing proudly on the side. The yellow-orange glow of the room compliments the Global Cat Day logo, whose cat icon shares a similar color and feeling of warmth.
In each of these examples, the primary focus is on the cats themselves, with all other elements acting as backups to give the cat more story and background. The minimalistic nature of several of these graphics also points to the idea that it doesn’t take much to tell a good story, and the photographs used do plenty in that regard. The added text simply serves as a way to provide additional context. The simplicity and focus on the main character—in these cases, the cats themselves—will be used in the visual solution

Fig. 1. Community Cat Infographic Poster. 2024. Alley Cat Allies, https://alley-cat-allies.myshopify.com/products/community-cat-infographic-poster.

Fig. 2. Logo of Global Cat Day and National Feral Cat Day. 2024. GlobalCatDay.Org, https://globalcatday.org.

Fig. 3. Advertisement presenting both Global Cat Day and National Feral Cat Day with a photograph of a cat named Victor. 16 Oct. 2024. Alley Cat Allies, https://www.alleycat.org/happy-global-cat-day-and-national-feral-cat-day/.

Fig. 4. Simple ad showcasing an unnamed community cat photograph, taken during National Feral Cat Day held in Lebanon, Tennessee. 16 Oct. 2024. Alley Cat Allies, https://www.alleycat.org/happy-global-cat-day-and-national-feral-cat-day/.

Fig. 5. Simple ad showing a community cat named Muffin from National Feral Cat Day held in Lebanon, Tennessee. 16 Oct. 2024. Alley Cat Allies, https://www.alleycat.org/happy-global-cat-day-and-national-feral-cat-day/.

Fig. 6. Ad with volunteers preparing for National Feral Cat Day with a poster of Global Cat Day in the background. 17 Oct. 2024. Alley Cat Allies, https://www.alleycat.org/thank-you-for-a-lifesaving-global-cat-day-and-national-feral-cat-day/.

Campaign 02: Adopt a Shelter Cat Month

Another annual event, this time put on by American Humane, has an entire month dedicated to it. June of every year is now seen as Adopt a Shelter Cat Month (also simply referred to as Adopt-a-Cat Month) in animal rescue and shelter circles across the world, though especially in the United States where the month-long event started. Originating in 1972 when American Humane realized that millions of shelter cats were being euthanized every year due to overflowing numbers, they initiated this month-long awareness event that would become an annual event hosted and encouraged by animal shelters, animal rescue groups, veterinarians, and volunteers the world over with the purpose of promoting adoptions. June was chosen because it coincides with the most kitten births each year as well, resulting in even more shelter intakes during this time period, greatly increasing the burden on resources (National Adopt a Cat Month). Currently, American Humane aides and partners with shelters and organizations for this event, while many groups will work on their own in honor of the annual campaign.
Finding specific information on actual adoption rates across the country in the month of June 2024 has proven difficult at best. However, Shelter Animals Count was established in 2012 to monitor shelter intake and adoption rate data, becoming a national database for that information. According to their mid-year report for 2024, at least, the overall cat adoption rate in shelters taking part in the database has decreased by 2% since 2023, meaning 23,000 fewer adoptions occurred between January and June 2024 compared to the same time frame in 2023. However, looking back at 2019, pre-pandemic, adoptions were up by 17% since then, or roughly 157,000 cats (2024 Mid-Year Analysis 12).
While this data cannot explicitly prove or disprove the success of Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, it does show that adoption rates are in flux. During my research, I pulled many examples of advertisements and promotional materials for the visual analysis and noted that while some material was generated by American Humane themselves, many others were generated by individual shelters, third party groups, and volunteers. Based on the mid-year numbers for 2024 and very little materials generated by American Humane themselves, I feel a more hands-on approach by American Humane could have greatly improved its overall success.
Finding specific information on actual adoption rates across the country in the month of June 2024 has proven difficult at best. However, Shelter Animals Count was established in 2012 to monitor shelter intake and adoption rate data, becoming a national database for that information. According to their mid-year report for 2024, at least, the overall cat adoption rate in shelters taking part in the
database has decreased by 2% since 2023, meaning 23,000 fewer adoptions occurred between January and June 2024 compared to the same time frame in 2023. However, looking back at 2019, pre-pandemic, adoptions were up by 17% since then, or roughly 157,000 cats (2024 Mid-Year Analysis 12).
While this data cannot explicitly prove or disprove the success of Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, it does show that adoption rates are in flux. During my research, I pulled many examples of advertisements and promotional materials for the visual analysis and noted that while some material was generated by American Humane themselves, many others were generated by individual shelters, third party groups, and volunteers. Based on the mid-year numbers for 2024 and very little materials generated by American Humane themselves, I feel a more hands-on approach by American Humane could have greatly improved its overall success.
For this month-long campaign, I searched for as many relevant examples of social media and similar digital media promotional materials as I felt would give me insights into the visual side of this annual event. The first three graphics (Fig. 7, 8, and 9) all showcase a photograph of a kitten looking directly at the viewer. Given that June is around the time when kitten births are most prominent, this is a clever tactic on American Humane’s part since it emphasizes the fact that there are more kittens crowding into shelters during this month than any other time of year. Each of these images also use a minimalist approach, letting the photograph and simple set of text do the talking, rather than bogging them down with extra design elements that might otherwise be distracting. In each case, the imagery depicts a kitten in need of a home, with Fig. 9 especially driving this home with the kitten behind a cage’s bars, as if in jail. The fourth image by American Humane, this one found on Facebook, takes a more nostalgic tone (Fig. 10) with the use of a polaroid-style photograph of a cat and human snuggling together. This kind of imagery is an excellent visual to give off a sense of comfort and affection, while the blue colors add a calm serenity to the graphic.
Of course, American Humane wasn’t the only ones to use imagery to advertise the Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, with the rest in this visual analysis having come from individual shelters or volunteers. First is a social media post by Charm City Veterinary Hospital that uses a similar tactic as the social media post by American Humane (Fig. 11). It combines a photograph of a cat in a comfortable and caring atmosphere with a light teal color that invokes calm and comfort. The next example is an illustrated social media poster by Muscatine Humane Society on Facebook (Fig. 12). This graphic uses an illustrated silhouette of a cat and two paw prints to accent the point of the poster, choosing a red-orange color alongside tan for their main colors, indicating both urgency and playfulness at the same time.
Another poster was created by the Humane Society of Ventura County in California (Fig. 13) that combines the use of illustrated elements and photographs to convey their meaning. Two heart shapes were used to emphasize the point that these lovable cats need a good home, while the organic shapes in the background add a fun, light-heartedness to the overall image. Finally, the last image is an animated gif created by Meowingtons to promote Adopt-a-Cat month (Fig. 14). The animated nature of the image in itself makes the graphic come alive, despite the cats all being cartoony and childish in their illustrative style, blinking eyes, and slight tail movements.
What is unique about this event is that it was originally spearheaded by American Humane, but since then has taken on a life of its own. Individual shelters, veterinary clinics, and animal advocate groups have taken it upon themselves to honor the month and work on their own to make progress towards improving their adoptions. As this analysis also shows, each organization has slightly different approaches to their designs. One of the key takeaways, however, is the continued emphasis on the cats themselves, and the feeling of warmth, comfort, love, and care that all of these graphics attempt to achieve. This is a feeling that will need to continue to be echoed in this thesis’ visual solutions.

Fig. 7. Simple ad design presenting Adopt-a-Cat Month for American Humane with a photograph of a kitten in grass. 13 May 2022. American Humane, https://www.americanhumane.org/initiative/adopt-a-cat-month/.

Fig. 8. Simple ad design presenting Adopt-a-Cat Month by American Humane with a prominent photograph of a kitten laying on a wood floor. 3 June 2021. American Humane, https://www.americanhumane.org/blog/this-adopt-a-cat-month-be-a-hero-for-a-cat-in-need/.

Fig. 9. We need them. They need us. 2024. American Humane, https://www.americanhumane.org/initiative/be-kind-to-animals-week/.

Fig. 10. June is National Adopt-a-Cat Month! 4 June 2023. Facebook, American Humane, https://www.facebook.com/americanhumane/posts/june-is-national-adopt-a-cat-month-cats-make-purr-fect-pets-and-are-known-to-pro/634257382082073/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 11. Have You Adopted a Cat? 16 June 2023. X.Com, Charm City Veterinary Hospital, https://x.com/Charm_City_Vet/status/1669763289990004755. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 12. Adopt a Shelter Cat Month. 1 June 2024. Facebook, Muscatine Humane Society, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=469227795659243&
set=a.180945194487506&type=3&_rdr. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024. — Fig. 12. Adopt a Shelter Cat Month. 1 June 2024. Facebook, Muscatine Humane Society, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=469227795659243& set=a.180945194487506&type=3&_rdr. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 13. Digital poster promoting Adopt-a-Cat Month with photographs of cats and kittens spread throughout. 24 May 2024. Humane Society of Ventura County, https://www.hsvc.org/cat2024. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 14. June is Adopt-a-Cat Month! 30 May 2021. Meowingtons, https://www.meowingtons.com/blogs/milton-the-cat-daily-comic/adopt-a-cat-month. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Campaign 03: Home for Hope

In an effort to raise awareness regarding shelter dog adoptions in Singapore back in 2014, two area animal shelter and advocate groups—Animal Lovers’ League and Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)—partnered and worked with local furniture boutique stores, the first of which was a Singapore-based IKEA furniture store. The awareness campaign was a clever one, where they put the faces of abandoned dogs residing in shelters right in front of IKEA’s customers as they shopped for new furniture. To do this, photographs of those dogs were printed, life-sized, onto cardboard standee cutouts and placed throughout the IKEA as if to accent the various displays used to advertise and showcase furniture sold throughout the store (Messenger). In addition, tags were placed on each of the cutouts as if they were wearing name tags of some kind, where information regarding that animal could be found. More importantly, though, was that each tag also included a unique QR code where customers could use their smart phones to scan them while browsing the shop. The links in those QR codes would take them to a website dedicated to that particular dogs’ adoption details, including a bio and short video all about that dog (Seow). This allowed customers to learn more about the dogs on display right there in the store while getting to see for themselves, through the cleverly displayed cutouts, how those dogs might look in a home environment. The whole point of the project was to encourage customers to imagine what the rooms of their home—whether kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, etc.—would look like if a dog was also present, with the ultimate goal of encouraging as many customers as possible to adopt these dogs.
The overall outcome of this project was a positive one. Following the campaign, a surge of dog adoptions from shelters such as Animal Lovers’ League and SOSD occurred, where numerous dogs were able to find homes (Macdonald). Even more interesting is that after this event concluded, several other furniture stores in the Singapore area also signed on to the project, taking part in the campaign to show off dogs in need of good homes. Such stores included Foundry, Grafunkt, Commune, Journey East and Noden Collective. In addition, in the United States, an IKEA store in Tempe, Arizona, replicated the same experience in partnership with the Arizona Humane Society where all of the six dogs on display through the store found homes as a direct result (Home for Hope: Using IKEA Furniture Displays to Advertise Homeless Dogs). Of course, the positive benefits of such a campaign did not necessarily end with improved adoptions. This kind of partnership between humane societies, shelters, and local businesses like IKEA provided an improved look at those very organizations. Commercial benefits for this kind of campaign could be seen since even if customers did not adopt a dog, the addition of these cut-outs would have been a surprising and more exciting experience while shopping, providing a positive outlook on both the cause and the store itself as a business.
To initiate this campaign, staff and volunteers photographed the dogs in question (Fig. 15) and were then printed on cardboard standees (Fig. 16). Afterwards, they were brought to the Singapore-based IKEA to be placed in various furniture displays throughout the store (Fig. 17). The cutouts were placed by both volunteers and IKEA staff as they prepared to open their doors for business, and could be found in displays featuring living rooms (Fig. 18), kitchens (Fig. 19), dining rooms (Fig. 20), bedrooms, or on individual furniture pieces (Fig. 21 and 22). These cutouts were fairly simple in their design as they were meant to showcase the various dogs who were looking for homes. As such, no major additional design was added, or needed, to the standees themselves.
Instead, the campaign used tags that were placed around the necks of the dog standees as if they were name tags that included information regarding the campaign and how to adopt the dogs (Fig. 22). This tag provided text encouraging a call-to-action, prompting people to find out more by using a scannable QR code that anyone with a smart phone could access (Fig. 23). Once scanned, customers were taken to a customized website where they could find that individual dog’s information in the form of a photograph, bio, and even a short video regarding that dog whose photo is propped up as a standee in the store (Fig. 24). The website even tracked the status of all the dogs in the campaign, indicating their adoption status (Fig. 25).
The tags themselves were all nearly identical to one another, with the only real exception being the individual QR codes being slightly different shapes in order to bring viewers to specific portions of the campaign’s website. However, the rest of the tag itself consisted primarily of easy-to-read, clean text against sharply contrasting backgrounds. The tag identified the campaign, Home for Hope, as the title on the top of the tag with white and yellow lettering against a black background. Then a short sentence explaining how adopting a pet can improve the audience’s home, followed then by a succinct call to action: “Adopt now” placed directly next to the QR code. This tag was composed primarily of text and background colors in a clear hierarchy that shows the name of the campaign, accompanying text, and call to action in that order. The bio page for each dog included what appears to be a photograph, the dog’s name, age, overall description, as well as information on how to adopt them or share the dog’s profile via Facebook. Much like the tag, this page is simple with a clear hierarchy between the image/video, dog’s name, bio, and description.
In what seems to be a recurring theme amongst the visual artifacts in this research, this campaign also relies on minimalism in their designs, letting the imagery tell the stories needed to be told without overburdening the viewer with erroneous visual information. Each of the cutouts is a large, but direct photograph of a dog in need. Nothing more, nothing less. Attached to each dog is a cutout as described previously. Every tag is also minimalist in style, consisting of clean-looking sans serif typography. This lends the campaign a modern and squared away feeling, indicating that it is being incredibly serious. And yet, the standees themselves present the viewers with a sense of nostalgia, memory-making, and warm comfort as if the dogs were making their way into peoples’ lives. After all, the futures of those dogs were on the line, so it needed to invoke emotions in multiple ways. This minimalist approach to design, in conjunction with the campaign’s memory-making tactic, is something that will be useful for the upcoming visual solutions as part of this thesis.

Fig. 15. Screenshot of a shelter dog being photographed in a studio. 3 August 2014. SoraNews24, https://soranews24.com/2014/08/03/singapores-home-for-hope-campaign-finds-homes-for-shelter-dogs-at-ikea/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 16. Screenshot of cardboard cutouts lined up on a table. 3 August 2014. SoraNews24, https://soranews24.com/2014/08/03/singapores-home-for-hope-campaign-finds-homes-for-shelter-dogs-at-ikea/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 17. Screenshot of staff and volunteers placing cutouts in IKEA store. 3 August 2014. SoraNews24, https://soranews24. com/2014/08/03/singapores-home-for-hope-campaign-findshomes-for-shelter-dogs-at-ikea/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 18. Screenshot of a dog cutout placed in a living room setting in IKEA. 16 July 2016. The Dodo, https://www.thedodo.com/clever-ikea-campaign-shows-how-630380379.html. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 19. Screenshot of a shelter dog cutout placed in a kitchen setting in IKEA. 16 July 2016. The Dodo, https://www.thedodo.com/clever-ikea-campaign-shows-how-630380379.html. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 20. Screenshot of shelter dog cutout placed in a living/dining setting in IKEA. 16 July 2016. The Dodo, https://www.thedodo.com/clever-ikea-campaign-shows-how-630380379.html. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 21. Screenshot of a dog cutout placed on a couch in IKEA. 16 July 2016. The Dodo, https://www.thedodo.com/clever-ikea-campaign-shows-how-630380379.html. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 22. Screenshot of a shelter dog cutout placed on a wooden chair in IKEA. 16 July 2016. The Dodo, https://www.thedodo.com/clever-ikea-campaign-shows-how-630380379.html. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 23. Screenshot of customer scanning QR code on dog’s tag with smart phone. 3 Aug. 2014. SoraNews24, https://soranews24.com/2014/08/03/singapores-home-for-hope-campaign-finds-homes-for-shelter-dogs-at-ikea/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 24. Screenshot of shelter dog’s bio page accessed via scannable QR code. 3 Aug. 2014. SoraNews24, https://soranews24.com/2014/08/03/singapores-home-for-hope-campaign-finds-homes-for-shelter-dogs-at-ikea/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Fig. 25. Screenshot of dog adoption status on Home for Hope website. 3 Aug. 2014. SoraNews24, https://soranews24.com/2014/08/03/singapores-home-for-hope-campaign-finds-homes-for-shelter-dogs-at-ikea/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Campaign 04: Share the Truth About Cats

Alley Cat Allies, being a major leader in community cat advocacy, created a short book of useful facts about cats called Share the Truth About Cats (Fig. 26, found on pages 78-79 of this thesis). It was designed as a pocket guide for volunteers and cat advocates as a resource they can either reference quickly or hand out and share with friends, family, or even the public at large. According to the book, “misinformation costs millions of cats their lives every year,” and as such, Alley Cat Allies uses fact books like this to “set the record straight… by educating people on the facts about community cats…” (2). And that is exactly what this book does: it presents a wide range of interesting facts about cats throughout its pages to inform people in concise and easy-to-understand statements while also sharing photographs of community cats from around the country to provide context to the information on each spread.
The overall outcome of this content is difficult to determine given limited information on how widely it has been spread. However, a certain amount of success can be gleaned from the amount of advertising it receives and in what forms. The first of which is that it has been shared as a regular part of Alley Cat Allies’ social media posts, such as on Facebook. For example, a Facebook post made on November 7, 2024, made over one hundred reactions and 25 shares at the time of writing this only a few days later, indicating that people are not just seeing the content, but are also spreading it as well (Alley Cat Allies, Cats are Community – Share the Truth About Cats). In addition, the Alley Cat Action newsletter—which will be another item studied as part of my research—uses an entire two-page spread to not only advertise the book, but also explains the importance of the content within (Alley Cat Action 2). The organization boasts over 1.4 million supporters around the globe, with many of them receiving this newsletter as part of their regular updates via email, making it a widely read digital publication, and as such, the content of the fact book is shared amongst them.
The book itself was created as a horizontally oriented, 26-page booklet. Most of the spreads within share a specific fact about community cats on one page, with the opposite page being a photograph of a specific community cat, taken from somewhere around the world. In addition, the photograph is positioned in such a way where enough empty space is given to provide a header for the fact presented on the opposite page. For instance, pages 6–7 indicate “Trap-Neuter-Return works. Killing doesn’t.” This is the headline on page 6, while the accompanying fact on page 7 explains how TNR is both humane and effective to managing community cat populations. The text on the image page is large, sans-serif, and easily contrasts against the photograph’s darker colors, making it a clear headline. The text on the opposite page starts with the word “Fact:” in yellow letters against a green background as another header. The subhead beneath it uses a smaller font size, yet still bold, indicating it is next in the visual hierarchy. Finally, the sentences below are in regular font weight and smaller size, showing that while this information is important, it is the last thing that should be read or viewed on this page. A similar approach to this visual hierarchy is used on each spread throughout the book to great effect.
In terms of color palette, they use warm colors of green and yellow to highlight the majority of the book. Even the photograph that makes up the cover uses the green of grass under a warm sunlight to indicate that cats are a widespread and integral part of our communities that live and prosper on their own outdoors. In addition, the book makes use of a golden yellow for several elements of text when focusing on something specific. This is meant to accent the main headers, and the color itself is an interesting choice that provides an added sense of energy and warmth to each spread, as if sunlight is shining down on each page.
The design choices for this fact book offer excellent sources of inspiration thanks to its easy to read, bold, sans-serif headers, clean subheadings, and contrasting text. The bright greens within show that cats belong in nature and letting them live outdoors is not just a good thing, but is entirely natural for them. It’s also relatively short at 26 pages, with many of those pages taken up by photographs and large text headings. This is an approach worth learning from because the book uses simplicity and directness to get is points across to readers. This book is meant to impart facts and knowledge to its readers quickly and succinctly, and its typography and image choices do just that. As such, any publication(s) design as part of the visual solution for this thesis need to follow a similar approach.

Fig. 26. Share the Truth About Cats: A Pocket Guide. Alley Cat Allies, Alley Cat Allies, https://www.alleycat.org/TruthPocketGuide/, Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Campaign 05: TNR Basics Card

As another method of disseminating facts and information, Alley Cat Allies also came up with a two-sided fact card for easy reference, titled Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) for Community Cats: The Basics (Fig. 27). The card can be found both digitally and in print in a two-page format. In its print form, it’s meant to be on a singular piece of cardstock that can be handed out at events or at local venues such as pet stores, animal shelters, veterinarian offices, and so on. In addition, it can also be readily shared amongst friends, family, and other acquaintances, making it an easily passed-around informational card.
This kind of fact card is especially useful for handing out to people who are interested in volunteering or otherwise helping community cats but are unsure how to do so. By learning more about TNR, perhaps more volunteers can be had in aiding these cats in the future. This, of course, presents the greatest challenge: passing this information around to people who would care. As it is meant to be printed on a two-sided card, they are easy to place in locations that people can see and access them. its digital form can also be passed from person to person, or organization to organization, via email or social media as a PDF or clickable link. Additionally, if people live near a cat colony, such a card would also be useful for placing in mailboxes and handed out to residents in that area as a way of informing them of an upcoming TNR program if one is in the works.
Alley Cat Allies has pushed for greater awareness and education when it comes to the lives of community cats. By advocating for TNR methods of population control, millions of cats are affected across the country. This informational card is just one of many methods that they have used to spread the word of what TNR is and how it’s conducted, primarily as a way to inform residents who live near cat communities that will be part of such programs. One of the best ways to share this information is through social media. One of their many posts is such an example, where on November 6, 2024, an informational post discussing TNR received 159 likes and 52 shares by the time I found it on Facebook two days later (Alley Cat Allies, Trap-Neuter-Return is the only humane approach to community cats). This means that at least 52 people have shared it to their timelines on Facebook, leading more people that are associated with those individuals to see it. This fact card is referenced within the post’s associated links that describe what TNR is as a way to help spread the word. While I cannot 100% state that the card itself was an enormous success, it can be said that the card is used as part of the overall successful strategy of spreading awareness and knowledge about TNR.
The card is designed in a vertical orientation and is two pages in length. In print, it is meant to be presented on a single piece of cardstock, which would allow for the card to be handed out easily to the public as needed. Most of the content on the card is text-based, and as such is heavily influence by type hierarchy rather than an assortment of imagery. The first page starts with the logo for Alley Cat Allies, followed by the header in large, dark blue, bold lettering, clearly indicating the main point of the card. Following this is a paragraph explaining what the card is all about before moving to its first subheading, indicating the first step of the TNR process in all capital letters, using the same blue as the header. Though the size of the type is much smaller than the header, so it doesn’t compete for attention. Paragraph text follows immediately after until it’s stopped by the next subhead that uses the same format as the previous. The paragraph text here is then wrapped around a circular photograph of a cat standing next to a trap used in TNR programs. The first page then ends with a blue banner that prompts the reader to find more information on their website.
The second page follows the same formatting, continuing the description of the second subhead. Then a light-green box takes the reader visually out from the topic they were previously reading to add additional context to that step. After that box is another set of three more subheads with accompanying paragraphs to round out the page, with a circular photograph of a cat being released punctuating the card. It then ends on another call-to-action, prompting viewers to visit their website for further information.
Despite its text-heavy approach, this card does an excellent job presenting its content in an easy to digest manner, providing facts and details about what TNR is in such a small space. The sans-serif fonts give it a clean and professional look, accented by the blue text of the header and subheads. These aesthetic choices provide valuable insights into how to approach the visual solutions in this thesis, with emphasis on relying on letting the content speak for itself and employing proper visual hierarchy to get the point across. This will be especially useful for a trifold, door hanger, or similar document that can be easily handed out to viewers.

Fig. 27. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) for Community Cats: The Basics. 2020. Alley Cat Allies, https://www.alleycat.org/resources/trap-neuter-return-for-community-cats-the-basics/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

Campaign 06: Help, I Found a Kitten!

This next campaign and material by Alley Cat Allies comes in the form of an infographic poster designed to educate people on what to do if a kitten is found on its own outside (Fig. 28). One major problem that shelters face is the influx of cats that come in off the street. However, Alley Cat Allies and its supporters feel that since cats are so naturally well equipped to survive on their own, people need to think twice before picking a kitten up and bringing it into an animal shelter. Some kittens may be part of an existing cat colony, for instance, and by taking them to a shelter a person is essentially tearing them away from their home and family. Other kittens, of course, were abandoned or on their own. In which case, they are in sore need of help. The tricky part of this is determining how and when it is appropriate to take a kitten found on the streets and delivering them to a municipal animal shelter. That is precisely what this infographic poster created by Alley Cat Allies aims to achieve through the use of an easy-to-follow flowchart of questions and answers that can lead viewers to the appropriate course of action.
When raising awareness, difficulties come in the form of reaching as many people as possible and trying to educate them in a meaningful way. To gauge the success of this poster, social media outlets like Facebook are a good measure to determine its effectiveness. On Alley Cat Allies’ own Facebook page, for instance, this poster was shared to their followers in a post on March 20, 2020. Since then, it hasn’t garnered a lot of attention, unfortunately, with 21 comments and 376 reacts in the form of “likes” and “hearts” indicating that people approved of the post. It did, however, find 181 shares since then, meaning that 181 people who follow the organization’s page shared that post with their friends, family, and other acquaintances (Alley Cat Allies, Help, I Found a Kitten! Poster). This means the connection and visibility of the post had the potential to reach hundreds, if not thousands, of additional viewers in the time since the initial post was made. In addition, another page that is a third party to Alley Cat Allies called Outcast Cat Help shared the poster via their own Facebook page a year prior in 2019. While this post did not receive nearly as many reactions as the one from Alley Cat Allies, at only 36 “likes” and “hearts” on it, it did still receive 69 shares since then, which in turn has had the potential to reach hundreds if not more viewers (Outcast Cat Help). From these numbers it can be surmised that between these two posts alone, the potential for thousands of people having seen the poster and reacted to it in some way is very high. Unfortunately, neither organization has seen fit to share the poster more regularly since 2020, making its overall success limited.
This poster is created in a vertical format that depicts a photograph of a newborn, neonatal kitten amongst grass at the very top with the title of the poster “Help, I Found a Kitten!” in bold sans-serif yellow font laying across it. Inside a somewhat opaque banner that also overlays the photograph is a subhead with some brief information letting the viewer know that if they should come across a kitten outside, look below to determine the best course of action. From there, viewers are presented with the flowchart itself, which begins with a question placed inside a dark gray rounded rectangle, asking what the age of the kitten is. In smaller lettering beneath it and inside the same bubble, Alley Cat Allies provides a helpful link to their website in the event the viewer has difficulty determining how old a kitten is simply by looking at it. From this bubble the flowchart branches off into two directions with the answers “No” and “Yes” on opposite sides.
On the “Yes” side, highlighted by a bright green color as the line and bubble’s backdrop, viewers are taken to the next bubble asking whether the kittens are friendly. If the answer is “yes” then the best option for that kitten is to bring that kitten in and try to find it a new home. If the answer is “no” then the best option, according to Alley Cat Allies, is to bring them into a shelter or veterinary clinic to have them spayed or neutered, given vaccines, and then returned to their colony that they were originally found.
On the opposite side, though, where the answer to the original question might be “No,” viewers are presented with the next question asking if the kitten is with its mother. If the answer is “No” then the flowchart goes to the next question, indicating that the viewer should observe the kitten from a hidden place for several hours. If after that time the mother has not returned, then the answer would be to rescue the kitten immediately and provide appropriate care such as bottle-feeding, since neonatal kittens cannot care for themselves yet. Returning back to the previous questions, if the viewer answered “Yes” to if the kitten was with its mother or if the mother did return after a few hours, then the overall answer regarding what to do with the kitten is to leave it be. The mother is caring for the kitten and needs no real help from people.
The final four answers described here are all presented with a direct and short answer in bold sans-serif font accompanied by a photograph associated with each answer. Each photo is then followed by a brief description about why this is the most appropriate course of action, and then invites the viewer to learn more about this answer by providing a link to part of Alley Cat Allies’ website that explains more about each of the decisions. Finally, the poster is complete with a blue banner at the footer that explains how the information provided is just a simplified version of the full answers. It then provides a call-to-action, indicating that viewers should visit their website for further details to learn even more about everything presented on the poster.
The layout and color choices in this poster do an excellent job presenting the topic at hand. The urgency and warning felt in the title thanks to its bold, golden yellow typography go a long way towards highlighting the importance of the information. As such, any infographic or informational posters generated as part of the visual solution should impart a similar feeling of importance and urgency, reflected in font and color choices. Meanwhile, the flowchart of questions and answers is both informative and easy to follow, showing that an infographic doesn’t need to be incredibly detailed to get its point across. The informational posters proposed for this thesis should be similarly easy to understand and follow without the viewer being bogged down by unnecessary details.

Fig. 28. Help, I Found a Kitten! 2024. Alley Cat Allies, https://www.alleycat.org/community-cat-care/finding-kittens-outdoors/. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Campaign 07: Alley Cat Action Newsletter

Each year, Alley Cat Allies releases newsletters called Alley Cat Action that provides news and information regarding many of the organization’s various triumphs, ongoing legal battles, events, and so on. This is a look at the Fall 2024 issue released in November of the same year (Fig. 29). The newsletter is available in a number of formats, with the most prominent being via a web-based reader on their website, which can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. It can also be downloaded as a PDF for printing or reading elsewhere offline if preferred. This issue provides an overview of many of the situations Alley Cat Allies finds itself in, as well as imparting knowledge and awareness. For instance, the first page discusses a temporary victory over the United States National Park Service (NPS) in Puerto Rico, where the NPS intended to “eradicate cats from the San Juan Historical Site” according to the article. Thanks to legal efforts by Alley Cat Allies and its supporters, that initative was halted for the time being.
Additionally, the newsletter also takes the opportunity to point out some of its other efforts, such as the previously discussed Share the Truth About Cats flip book. In this way, they use the newsletter to further spread awareness of not just the cats themselves, but also the materials that readers can download, purchase, and share. It also discusses the previously examined National Feral Cat Day and Global Cat Day, highlighting some of the successes of the events that day, with the remaining pages discussing a variety of events or updates.
The success of this newsletter is best measured in the fact that it is something sent out to anyone who is currently subscribed to receiving news and information from Alley Cat Allies. The newsletter itself even indicates this on the first page, stating that there are over 1.4 million supporters around the world, which means that most, if not all, of those supporters received this newsletter.
Further success can also be measured in the stories the newsletter tells. For example, halfway through the newsletter is a “Profile in Generosity” that highlights a particular example of a devoted supporter, Catherine Mann, who became interested in supporting and helping TNR programs over two decades ago thanks to literature provided by Alley Cat Allies at the time. Since then, Mann has worked diligently to advocate for and protect community cats through monthly donations and taking part in the care of three large community cat colonies to this day (Alley Cat Action 3). This short article highlights just one person out of many but provides an eye-opening example of the positive support gained by awareness campaigns. On the following page, the newsletter also discusses the triumphs that came with Global Cat Day and National Feral Cat Day, October 16, 2024. According to the article, people all over the world worked hard to help community cats “from New Orleans to Paris,” including the 200 cats and kittens who were spayed, neutered, and vaccinated as part of National Feral Cat Day in two Tennessee counties alone (Alley Cat Action 4).
Alley Cat Action is a typical editorial with a two-column grid making for a predictable and straightforward reading experience. This is more than enough for a 6-page newsletter to share a handful of stories. They chose a large sans-serif font for the title, using white text against a dark blue banner to make it pop out for easy viewing. Below is the first major article featuring a photograph of Puerto Rico to reflect the title of that article. Paragraph text is black against white, while additional photographs showcasing local area cats are also provided to illustrate the lives being affected by NPS. The next two-page spread advertises and discusses the Share the Truth About Cats flip book, including information about cats that is also part of the book. The article is then ended with a highlighted mention of an especially generous individual who has donated her time and money to Alley Cat Allies for many years. This honorable mention uses a light blue box to separate it from the rest of the page’s content and isolate it into its own category, while not making it an entire article on its own.
Page four shows viewers a large advertisement banner that was used as part of marketing Global Cat Day and National Feral Cat Day. Information about the successes on that day are presented here, with a final image of a community cat in one of the Tennessee counties to underline the lives being helped. The remaining pages are a series of stories, both ongoing and completed, that discuss legal actions taken by Alley Cat Allies. The header of this article uses red, green, and blue for its text colors, much like the initial article on the first page. The red text “Transforming” is both red and italicized, creating the greatest emphasis in contrast to the green, bold “Communities” and the blue, bold “for Cats” that follow. In doing so, the newsletter points out that the main goal of their actions was to transform the communities and help cats. Green is used to complement the red and act as the recipient of the transformation indicated by the first word. Meanwhile, the blue acts as a calming color and completes the thought. The newsletter finally ends on a success, presenting cats that were positively affected by their efforts, complemented by photographs of those same cats. This page also includes a dedicated “You Saved Their Lives” typographical art to accentuate the fact that it is because of their supporters that they could do anything to help at all, providing a personal connection to readers.
Overall, this newsletter provides a wealth of useful examples of how to handle the presentation of facts and information while also adding a personal touch at the same time. From font choices, color palette, to messaging, these are all elements that will inspire the visual solutions.

Fig. 29. “Alley Cat Action.” Alley Cat Allies, Nov. 2024, https://www.alleycat.org/newsletter_fall_2024/. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Campaign 08: iHeartCats Media Kit

iHeartCats is a media organization whose goal is the promotion of healthy, happy cats by encouraging pet ownership and animal rescues. Categorized as a digital media outlet, they specialize in cat-based paraphernalia that they either sell directly, or they endorse on behalf of other animal-based groups. Their goal is an ongoing one that involves raising money through these sales and endorsements that can be turned around and used to help shelter cats find good homes. To that end, one of the projects they regularly engage in is the soliciting of other businesses and organizations. These could be shelters, animal rescue groups, or even companies that sell animal related products like food, toys, litter, and so on. By partnering with other groups, iHeartCats promises to not only help those organizations reach a wider audience, but also use their efforts to help cats live happy lives.
With this in mind, iHeartCats created a media kit that is used to present their case and what they have to offer to potential companies and groups that would essentially be their clients. The 40-page PowerPoint presentation, exported as a PDF, showcases what it is they do, how many people they reach, and showcases the various ways in which they do it (Fig. 30). For instance, they showcase an Instagram hashtag called #picsforpaws where thousands of customers tag posts with when sharing their cats alongside products they purchased for their cause (iHeart Cats Media Kit 5). The kit further explains how they can help businesses reach more customers, through direct email, featured products, newsletter mentions, blog posts, native advertising on their blog, product review videos, dedicated on-website posts or ads, features, and much more. The main challenge here is garnering enough interest from other businesses and animal rescue groups or shelters for them to not only stay in business but use that money to help cats around the world. By partnering with those businesses, they can do just that, and the purpose of this media kit is to give potential partners and clients evidence that they are worth the investment.
The overall success of the media kit can be measured in the very information contained within its pages. iHeartCats boasts a wide audience with millions of connections each month. In their own words, every month they reach around one million page views, which also includes 640,000 unique viewers. In addition, their social media accounts across Facebook, Instagram, X, etc., add up to around two million views each month. Marketing they put out for their clients on their website, newsletter, or social media, adds up to ten million impressions per month (iHeartCats Media Kit 3). This is all to say that iHeartCats has an impressive amount of traffic going through their site and on social media, indicating that a partnership with them would help boost the visibility of any organization looking to make a bigger impact on a wider audience.
The media kit continues its explanations by providing examples of what kinds of media they can expect, such as direct email blasts, newsletter features, dedicated blog posts, product reviews (for companies looking to advertise a new product, for instance), website promotions, advertisements, text message alerts, social media posts, print promotional material, and so much more. Many of the services they offer in the media kit also come with examples of what current or previous clients have done with them, further demonstrating the success of their media kit and their overall partnerships.
iHeartCats clearly spent a great deal of time developing this media kit given its professional and polished look. The colors commonly used throughout the documents include grays, black, white, and red. This is an interesting combination because it gives off a grounded feeling in the grays, yet the red accents provide a bold or energetic feel to an otherwise neutral color scheme. It lends itself a sense of sophistication when paired with the sleek forms of the sans-serif fonts used throughout the document, further highlighting the company’s professionalism. The grays present a subdued elegance while the reds provide a level of drama and urgency as if encouraging viewers to take action.
The photographs and imagery used within the media kit also echoes this feeling. The cover, as previously mentioned, uses a great deal of white negative space and then placed a grayscale photograph at the bottom center with the company logo off to the right of the slide. By doing this, the viewer’s eyes are naturally and immediately guided towards the photograph of the woman and cat, while the black and white of the image itself evokes a nostalgic feeling of comfort and care. Then the eyes are captured by the sharply contrasting black and red of the iHeartCats logo to the image’s right.
Subsequent slides in the media kit follow similar approaches, where a great deal of white space is used to push focus onto a particular point. Many of these pages are also complimented by photographs that are subdued in their color range, sticking to earthy tones like browns and tans or by going black and white like the cover image did. These images are then accented and boosted by lines and shapes in the same red color to add a bit more life and energy to the pages that otherwise would not exist if left out. The designer(s) of this media kit seem to have created the design in this way because they wanted to evoke feelings of comfort and nostalgia while also underscoring the professionalism of iHeartCats as a business. The addition of red highlights and bright white negative space also provides a level of energy and excitement to balance out the gray and earthy tones of the imagery. If they didn’t do that, it’s entirely possible the imagery would feel more somber than nostalgic.
Given that I am proposing to create at least one kind of presentation for my own visual solutions, I feel this media kit holds a great deal of inspiration in the form of minimalist, clutter-free, balanced, and thoughtful design aesthetics that will carry over into the visual solutions.

Fig. 30. “iHeartCats Media Kit.” iHeartCats, 2024. https://iheartcats.com/advertising-media-partnerships/?srsltid=AfmBOoruOGRFl_OqtHzXbJvVIzuZDb634A3HJW9zQiqoinVFNxaY8D6k.

CONCLUSIONS DERIVED FROM THE RESEARCH

Research conducted in the Literature Review portion of this chapter shows that animal shelters across not just the United States but throughout the rest of the world face a problem where the influx of cats entering shelters far outpaces their capacity to adopt them out. As a result, this creates a strain on resources from overcrowding, leading to the euthanasia of millions of cats each year. To curtail the problem, it’s best to understand the factors from both intake and output to educate and arm shelters with knowledge they can use to inform future strategies.
One side of the problem lies with the number of cats entering shelters to begin with. With community cat populations at extremely high levels, many of them are brought in and often have trouble finding good homes. To reduce the number of cats coming from off the streets, programs such as trap-neuter-return have proven to be highly effective. Not only do these programs help decrease and manage the number of cats living on the street—thereby lowering the number entering shelters to begin with—they also improve the health and welfare of those same community cats by providing vaccinations and much-needed medical attention. In some cases, cats in TNR programs also are put up for adoption if deemed appropriate.
The other side of the problem resides within the shelters themselves. Many preconceptions of cats due to age, gender, coat color, and breed have been shown to directly impact the length of stay cats have in shelters before adoption, if they are adopted at all. Black cat bias, for example, is a predominant superstition that still holds true today, while older cats struggle to find homes due to their age.
In addition, behavioral traits have a significant impact on their adoption chances. Cats that are active and friendly are adopted quickly, leaving behind the timid, anxious, or aggressive. Shelters need new ways of understanding these biases in potential adopters to best combat this issue. For cats with behavioral problem, as well, shelters could consider new strategies to help make even the most nervous or hostile cats amenable to humans. Such strategies could include slow blinking techniques or clicker training, as studies have investigated. Furthermore, the potential emotional, social, and even physiological development benefits cannot be ignored, providing further information that can be passed on to shelters and communities for greater education on the merits of adopting a cat.
In the end, the goal is to diminish the overpopulation of animal shelters across the United States so that the flow of cats coming in does not threaten the resources and wellbeing of the cats waiting for adoption, while at the same time increasing the speed at which adoptions occur through greater knowledge and improved strategies.
The various campaigns and materials collected as part of the additional research portion of this thesis provides a wealth of visual inspiration and understanding. Organizations such as Alley Cat Allies, American Humane, and iHeartCats work day and night to help provide for the lives and wellbeing of cats around the world. Annual events such as National Feral Cat Day and Adopt a Shelter Cat Month are two excellent examples of how people come together to aid cats in need. Whether that’s by empowering municipalities and area volunteers to engage in TNR programs or offering incentives for people to adopt a cat or two from local shelters, at the end of the day each of these groups aims to improve the lives of cats, reduce the strain on shelters, and ultimately eliminate the unfortunate need to euthanize cats.
Most of the visuals collected as part of this additional research have several aesthetic choices in common that will make their way into the visual solutions presented in this thesis. The first and most prominent of those choices is a minimalist approach. Whether it is an advertisement celebrating National Feral Cat Day, tags and bio pages for shelter dogs in the Home for Hope Campaign, layout of the Share the Truth About Cats fact book, or the iHeartCats media kit, each of these projects presented simple and effective imagery or meaningful and direct text to tell the story that needed to be told. Some graphics only included a photograph with a limited amount of text, while others were highly text-based (such as the TNR Basics card in Campaign 02) that made use of expertly executed typographical hierarchy. The main takeaway here is that less truly is more.
In addition, I feel the color choices in many of these examples have shown that either a warm and caring color palette or a calm and nostalgic one is the best approach. With warmth in bright colors such as yellows or reds, the designs can come across as fun and exciting. On the other hand, a sense of calm can be had in various blue colors that bring the feel of a design down to Earth. Finally, utilizing imagery that invokes a sense of nostalgia and empathy would be an effective addition to any design generated in the visual solutions for this thesis.
In conclusion, the aesthetics shown in each of the projects presented in the additional research portion of this chapter provide inspiration and guidance for the upcoming visual solutions for this thesis.

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RESEARCH METHODS

LITERATURE REVIEW

CASE STUDIES & VISUAL ANALYSES

Campaign 01: National Feral Cat Day

Campaign 02: Adopt a Shelter Cat Month

Campaign 03: Home for Hope

Campaign 04: Share the Truth About Cats

Campaign 05: TNR Basics Card

Campaign 06: Help, I Found a Kitten!

Campaign 07: Alley Cat Action Newsletter

Campaign 08: iHeartCats Media Kit

CONCLUSIONS DERIVED FROM THE RESEARCH

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DISCLAIMER

CONNECT ON SOCIAL

RESEARCH METHODS

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

REDUCING SHELTER CAT INTAKE

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)

TNR: Community Involvement

INCREASING ADOPTION RATES

Influence of Physical Traits on Length of Stay

Cat’s Age

Coat Color: Black Cat Bias

Breed & Gender

Influence of Behavioral Traits on Length of Stay

Small Body, Big Personality

Blinking and Clicking: Predictors and Strategies

CONCLUSION

CASE STUDIES & VISUAL ANALYSES

CASE STUDIES

VISUAL ANALYSES

Campaign 01: National Feral Cat Day

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

OUTCOME

VISUAL ANALYSiS

Campaign 02: Adopt a Shelter Cat Month

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

OUTCOME

VISUAL ANALYSiS

Campaign 03: Home for Hope

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

OUTCOME

VISUAL ANALYSiS

Campaign 04: Share the Truth About Cats

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

OUTCOME

VISUAL ANALYSiS

Campaign 05: TNR Basics Card

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

OUTCOME

VISUAL ANALYSiS

Campaign 06: Help, I Found a Kitten!

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

OUTCOME

VISUAL ANALYSiS

Campaign 07: Alley Cat Action Newsletter

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

OUTCOME

VISUAL ANALYSiS

Campaign 08: iHeartCats Media Kit

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

OUTCOME

VISUAL ANALYSiS

CONCLUSIONS DERIVED FROM THE RESEARCH