What is criminal animal neglect?

Animal neglect situations are those in which the animal's caretaker or owner fails to provide food, water, shelter or veterinary care sufficient for survival. It can be either deliberate or unintentional, but either way, the animal suffers terribly. Extended periods of neglect can lead to severely compromised health or even death. Animal control agencies nationwide report that animal neglect cases are the most frequent calls to which they respond.

How does it cause animal suffering?

The pain of an animal who lingers with untreated illness or wounds, or without nourishment, or shelter, can be tremendous— sometimes even more so than those who are victims of directly inflicted violence, because their suffering is so prolonged. Animals who starve to death experience a myriad of painful symptoms throughout each stage of their physical deterioration. An initial loss of body fat is followed by muscle loss and atrophy and, ultimately, organ failure. In long-term starvation, degeneration of the liver, cardiac changes, anemia and skin lesions may develop.

An animal without proper shelter can also quickly succumb to extreme heat or cold. Often these animals perish only feet away from the homes in which their caretakers live.

Dogs who are continually chained are also neglect victims, even if it may not be illegal in that particular jurisdiction. Because dogs are social pack animals, isolating them at the end of a chain causes them anguish that can drive them to aggression, neuroses and self-mutilation behaviors. Chained dogs are also more likely to be victims of starvation, because their confinement renders them particularly helpless.

RESEARCH & DISCOVERY

Millions of dogs are left on the streets every single year. And it, unfortunately, happens all over the world. Many of these poor abandoned animals die and some are taken to shelters. Sadly, very few are adopted by loving families.

To find a deep understanding of the problem, I went to see the statistics of animal abundance and started my research with Austin Animal Center. After researching their website I was able to find reports of years 2017 and 2018 available for the public here.

Why people abandon and neglect their pets…And it’s not what you think.

I will never defend an act as cruel as abandoning or neglecting an animal. But I do want to understand the major reasons behind it. Would you like to know why some owners abandon and/or neglect their pets? Here are the most common reasons for it:

BUILDING EMPATHY

Based on my research, I recognize that there might be many user types that I would like to solve problems for. In this project, I have decided to focus on one Persona since their needs were the most common and based on two reasons previously discovered in my research:

• Lack of Time

• Lack of Money

Please meet Amanda Davis, and she will help you to better empathize with my main user groups and prioritize goals according to their needs.

Comparison Analysis Top Takeaways:

1. Only 2 of the most popular pet services are offering Mobile Apps. Those 2 companies are Wag and Rover.

2. Some services are unclear about the pricing, which can confuse the user and prevent from using their services on a daily basis.

3. The most affordable dog walk will cost the user $13 if she is able to schedule it with one of the Rover clients on time. Researching Rover services, they are offering a wide selection of dog walkers and the opportunity to chat with them. The cheapest walker I found charged $13, but most of them start at $15 and up for a short walk.

If Amanda needs to schedule walking service for her dog, it will cost her $320 a month, not including tips and taxes associated with this fee. And this is just once per day on weekdays, assuming she is home all weekend and on time from work for a third walk.

With the above statistics, I can confidently say that dog walking services are very expensive and are luxuries instead of necessary expenses.

So what happens when a person has another pet? Remember, Amanda is an owner of 1 dog and 1 cat.

4. The most affordable cat/pet sitting service you will find is $45 from Walk ATX. And if you are not able to book it on time, the next price offered is $52 from WAG, not including taxes, tips, and transportation expenses.

If Amanda travels at least one night of the month, $45+ is added to her expenses. Her monthly budgeting on pet care should start at $400.  But let us look at her budget first:

Amanda’s annual income is $42,000, which means she actually takes home a paycheck with $2,908 a month. If her monthly budget is $2,707, she will not be able to afford pet care services.

How is it possible for those 50% of households in Austin, TX, that are pet owners to provide and afford dog walking services when needed? Here’s the truth - they cannot afford pet care services, and as a result, the animal may be neglected.

The product vision:

There were many things that a solution could have, but I decided these were the most pressing. As a product, I wanted to position it as the leading and affordable platform with 3 key focus areas:

1. Affordable, which will be a result of a neighbor's connections and collaboration. To find an answer to the questions, "How to make pet care services affordable?" I had to find a solution to "How to attract people taking care of someone's pet for less money?" The answer is collaboration. Only pet owners, friends, and good neighbors will be willing to help. 

   The idea of creating a service where people can help each other was born before this project but required research. After research and user interviews I began understanding users and their pain-points. I realized that pet owners would help each other if they have an existing platform that coordinates it. And this is where I step into the market, offering my product for people that cannot afford expensive services.

2. Primarily used on mobile devices. My goal is to create a mobile app instead of a website that gives users opportunities and 24-hour access to the services anywhere they are. Research studies by VWO Blog have shown that mobile users spend 86% of their time on mobile apps and just 14% of the time on mobile websites. Moreover, the average time users spend on mobile apps is also increasing — rising by 21% in one year. With people traveling and working, pet care service should primarily be available on mobile for fast and easy access.

3. Always available on demand.  I need to make sure my app will allow pet owners to request service immediately, which means always offering options of walkers/caregivers. This will require involving many marketing strategies and promotions within different communities. 

Developing Stage or “Ideas to Action”

Since I now had a clear idea of what users needed and wanted I could begin creating their flow throughout the app. Working through the user flows helped me to map out the paths a user would take but I soon found it to be messy and didn’t seem exactly right. My first user flow was bloated and not very good. I started to recognize many faults when I began the wireframing, and below are the final two main user flows that are important for my app. From the following user flows you should see:

1. How user’s path will look when Amanda needs to schedule a service for her pet.

2. How user’s path will look when Amanda is ready to become a neighbor for the pet owners.

As an animal lover, I personally couldn't even imagine the idea of just abandoning a pet, unsure of whether they'll survive or not, or hope the pet will be okay for a long period of time left alone.

In many cases, animal abuse isn’t as obvious as one might think. Most people are just busy, some people cannot afford more help, and some just don’t care.

That’s why we need to understand animal abuse, break down what it entails, and fight against it at every opportunity. If nobody speaks up or stops the abuse, it will continue to occur.

My goal was to show how big this problem is and to design a solution on how we can help each other. How can this world full of technologies still allow animals to suffer? If you like my idea, and would love to help me build this mobile app, please contact me, so we can discuss more. And right now, please don’t forget:

1. Pets are part of your family

2. Pets trust you

3. Pets will stay by you for years

4. They fulfill our lives

5. We now have technology to help us.