Heading for Home’s online presence was developed to make the best possible use of social media to communicate with our supporters, promote our animals looking for homes and advocate for reforms to companion animal welfare in Victoria and Australia.
Because we know not everyone is interested in everything, we have tried to use different platforms for different purposes; our supporters can choose how much, or how little, and what kinds of information they receive from us.
Our website
Our website is our working space. It’s where we keep our adoption questionnaires, our policies, our animals available for adoption, links to our Twitter and Facebook sites, and, of course, our blog.
Our Facebook page
Our Facebook site is where we share our animals, new ones, ones looking for homes and updates on adopted animals. The page is designed to be positive space where we can celebrate the wonderful qualities of the pets we take into care and enjoy their happy ever afters. We don’t post sad stories, confronting pictures or advocacy information. If you “like” our Facebook page you’ll find it’s all about the animals. We try to keep the page uncluttered with stuff that isn’t about the animals moving in and out of Heading for Home’s care. And because we believe in trying to be open and transparent, you’ll be able to see our animals as they come in to our care and go to their forever homes.
General Facebook policy
- We love updates of our animals in their new homes, so please feel free to post photos and updates on our page.
- When we post the profiles of pets looking for new homes, please feel free to share them widely. The more attention they get, the faster they go home.
- If you’ve seen an animal on our page you’re interested in adopting, even if they’re not yet listed on Pet Rescue, please feel free to fill out an adoption questionnaire and send to us.
- If you’d like to ask questions about a pet we’ve posted on our page, please feel free to comment, but if you’d like a faster answer sending us an email might be easier.
- If you’d like to list a lost pet, please drop us an email or private message first. We’re always happy to help spread the word about a lost pet.
- If you want advice about a pet you need to rehome, please send us an email or private message rather than post on the page.
- We treat all of our supporters with respect and courtesy, we assume that our Facebook friends will treat each other the same way, to ensure that our page is an enjoyable place to visit for everyone.
And just a note about liking us on Facebook. Facebook doesn’t necessarily show you all the posts for every page you’ve liked, and sometimes none at all. So if you have liked us at some state and wonder where we are, we didn’t go away, Facebook is just being erratic. If you head on over to our Facebook page (making sure that you have actually liked us) and click on the “like” button and click on “receive notifications” as well as “like” you’ll get a note when we post.
Our Pet Rescue site
Pet Rescue is where our pets looking for homes are listed (the list on our website is a feed from Pet Rescue). If you’re interested in adopting one of our pets, here’s where you’ll find their profiles and photos.
Privacy
We respect your privacy and that includes on our social media sites. We love posting our going home photos, but will crop them to ensure that humans aren’t identifiable. Nor will we post your name or other personal details on the site without your express permission. If you send us update photos for Facebook, we’ll still ensure that we humans aren’t identifiable.