Technology may change the way we adopt animals.
Original article from AOL Weird News:
Larry Knowles
AOL News
Developed by Michael Ayalon, AnimalRoulette.com is a 2-month-old website that aims to revolutionize the way people adopt pets. No more driving to the local shelter to pick out a dog or cat amid a chorus of barks, meows or tweets. Now, it can all be done online, quickly and in the convenience of the home.
Playing off the randomness of Chat Roulette, which allows participants to switch to another partner on a whim, Animal Roulette permits potential adopters to jump from animal to animal with the click of a mouse (the mechanical kind).
The first Animal Roulette, held on July 17 at the Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton, N.Y., saw over 200 chats take place, resulting in 15 adoptions. While the event only featured canines, the idea is for future roulettes to be completely random — meaning any shelter animal could pop up on an adopter’s screen.
Tired of the dog you’re “chatting” with? Click a button — up comes a lizard.
While the randomness may sound like whimsy, it serves a very good purpose, says Ayalon, 35, of East Meadow, N.Y. He explains that most people only think of adopting popular animals, such as cats and small, well-mannered dogs. However, he adds, there are so many other animals at shelters that just need a little face time with adopters.
“The system is obviously broken,” Ayalon said of the way pets are adopted in the U.S., “and something needs to be done.”
Eventually, Ayalon expects adopters to use Animal Roulette not only to jump from animal to animal, but from shelter to shelter in their search for the ideal pet. And to ensure the roulettes don’t attract idle browsers or weirdos, shelters require participants (the human ones) to fill out an application before they can chat with animals.
Ayalon came up with the idea for Animal Roulette eight months ago, after a fruitless visit to a shelter to adopt a dog. There were so many distractions, he said, he couldn’t focus on any particular dog.
“There were a lot of animals that didn’t get a chance,” he recalled. “One of the goals of Animal Roulette is to show the animals in a calmer, more natural environment.”
While the frivolity of Chat Roulette turned him off, he saw promise in the concept.
“Chat Roulette had no meaning to me,” Ayalon explained. “I liked the technology. I just thought the meaning was wrong.”
Pam Green, executive director of the Kent Animal Shelter, is an early adopter (pun intended) of Animal Roulette and believes the concept’s greatest strength lies in the live interaction with animals.
“If you see a picture of an animal on a website, you don’t really know what the animal is like,” Green said. “And you don’t know whether the animal has been adopted or not.”
Ayalon is still looking for a dog to adopt and hopes to use Animal Roulette to find one. He was online for the Kent Animal Shelter roulette and had his eye on a Chihuahua. Alas, the dog was adopted by an eager participant before he could get it.
As writer C.P. Snow once said, “Technology … is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.”
