Stop what you're doing. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter — you could be playing with cats over the Internet instead.
The Humane Society of Utah has set up in a room of its shelter three remote-controlled cat toys that people can control through the iPet Companion website. Visitors to the site wait their turn for a two-minute session that gives you control over the toys, and a surveillance camera to watch the cats play. Once the session is over, you can get back in line for another turn.
The Murray shelter launched the new feature Monday morning, and hope it will dispel the myth that a shelter is "a sad, depressing place" and shine special attention on cats who tend to get passed by, said spokeswoman Deann Shepherd.
Right now, the shelter is keeping foster cats in the room with the iPet technology. They hope that giving people chance to interact with the cats will help them "understand that there's still a lot of love in them, and that they're still great pets," Shepherd said.
The shelter plans on adding older cats to the room as well.
The technology also gives people a chance to play with cats if they can't own one — because of an allergy, for instance, Shepherd said.
iPet Companion donated the technology to the Humane Society of Utah, making it one of only 13 shelters in the country with this technology, Shepherd said. The company has reported shelters enjoying an increase in adoptions and donations after introducing the toys and camera, Shepherd added.
To celebrate the new addition to the shelter, the Humane Society is waiving adoption fees for cats who are at least 7 months old. The waiver lasts through the end of the month. All cats adopted until April 30 will also receive a free microchip.
Poster Comment:
Cool use of technology!
Hopefully it will help lead to more adoptions of these playfull little critters. Nevertheless, people need to be responsible and spay/neuter their pets to reduce the number of unwanted strays.
