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People meet dates on-line, why not pets? 

For example, Cocoa, a fifty pound chocolate lab, who is nearly dwarfed by his lolling pink tongue, or Daniel, described as the offspring of “a pure-bred Persian cat who got into trouble with a passerby." 

These animals reside physically at the Berkeley Humane Society, but can now be found on-line at a new Internet site created to tempt the ready pet owner. 

The site, www.virtualpetadoption.com is the brainchild of Gary Templin, president of the East Bay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  

“Our intent, hopefully sooner rather than later, is to make it possible for the public to go to the site and look at all the adoptable animals in Alameda County,” said Templin. The Web Site is a collaboration between Pet Food Express, the East Bay SPCA in Oakland, the Berkeley Humane Society and several other shelters in the county. Pet Food Express hosts the web site, Templin found grants to pay for equipment, and shelters donate time to uploading images of each adoptable animal onto the site. 

“It was a dream that I had,” said Templin. “I’ve always been bothered by how we non-profits tend to not be very business oriented nor customer service oriented.”  

Before Virtual Pet Adoptions.com, he said, if people visited the shelter and didn’t see the pets they wanted, the best he could do was give them the address of a shelter in Fremont or Hayward.  

“They had to take their chances, and they might give up and say this is too much work or too much traffic,” Templin said. “Our Internet used to be highways 880, 580, 680, and 24.”  

Now the East Bay SPCA hosts a kiosk featuring the virtual pet adoption web site. If visitors don’t find the pet they want, they can check the kiosk to see which shelter might have the right kind of animal. Soon each shelter will host a similar site. 

“The shelters are kind of isolated in a lot of ways from the community. I believe that the more convenient we make it and the more exposure the animals get, the more animals are going to go home. The goal is to have a home for every adoptable animal by the year 2007,” said Templin.  

When Templin speaks about every adoptable animal, he means every adoptable animal that comes into every shelter in Alameda County, not just those who arrive at the door of Oakland’s SPCA. “We’re supporting animals, not organizations,” he said. 

Anecdotal evidence indicates that his plan is working. Ian M. Stewart, “PetMaster” of the Pet Food Express and Virtual Pet Adoptions.com sites, estimates that Virtual Pet Adoptions.com has received thousands of clicks so far. He said he’s heard of people driving from Novato to Fremont to collect an animal they found on the web, and that a woman in San Jose looked every day for three weeks until she found the pet she was looking for.  

Nancy Frensley, animal behaviorist at the Berkeley Humane Society photographs the Berkeley animals to put their pictures on the web. Frensley notes the animals weight, activity level, health statistics, and character. “Most people need a little bit of counseling when it comes to selecting,” said Frensley. “It’s real real easy to fall in love with a pet that might not work out with your lifestyle. Even making people aware of weight, activity level, etc. is very important, it’s a consciousness raising thing.” 

While websurfers can search for animals by shelter location, age, size, or activity level, they can’t search by breed. 

“We get a lot of questions, ‘Why can’t I click for golden retriever?’,” said Stewart. “We want to simulate the shelter.” Although people may “go in looking for a Labrador,” he said, they may come out with a poodle instead. 

Berkeley Humane Society has adopted out 127 adult animals since going up on the web in June. Although Frensley can’t say how much of that adoption rate can be attributed to the web site, she does believe that the site contributes to getting adult animals placed. 

“What’s nice is that we can show these adult animals as individuals not in groups barking in kennels,” said Frensley.  

Thus far the Humane Society shelter is the only Berkeley shelter placing its animals on the Virtual Pet Adoptions web site, although Templin said that the city municipal shelter has been invited to join. No spokesperson at the city shelter was available for comment. 

Templin hopes the Internet, which has united like individuals in “virtual communities” around the world, can also bring pets closer to pet owners, by canvassing furry mugs around the city. “We’re looking forward to a plan where the Pet Food Express stores will have a kiosk available to the public,” he said. “I want each of the municipalities to put a kiosk in the city hall, in the libraries, in the banks...”