PUPPIES AND PERKS

Benjamin Hart’s Indiegogo campaign is titled, “When Should You Spay or Neuter Your Puppy?” — and, depending on much you donate, you can get the answer sooner rather than later. Here are some of the campaign’s perks:

• “I want to know my puppy mixes!” ($25) — “We will email you a fun word and picture puzzle called ‘How Well Do You Know Your Puppy Mixes?’”
• “Give me the results!” ($100) — “We will email you the final project report with prepublished findings at the conclusion of this project.”
• “Keep me updated!” ($500) — “We will email you project updates every two months throughout the duration of the project, ending with a final project report.”
• “I want to be a major donor!” ($1,000) — “We will give you name recognition and acknowledgement in published papers that result from this project, as well as project updates every two months and a final project report.”

ANIMAL ADOPTATHON

UC Davis veterinary students and professionals are upholding their veterinary oaths by holding an Animal Adoptathon on campus, with no-fee adoptions and veterinary services, on Saturday, Oct. 25. The event is grant-funded by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation’s Our Oath in Action program, which “gives veterinarians, technicians, assistants and staff members the opportunity to reach out and connect to the animal loving public outside of the veterinary clinic.” Activities will include 4-H and dog club demonstrations, and face painting — with animal art, of course! Read more.

A veterinary professor is the first UC Davis researcher to launch a “crowdfunding” campaign under the university’s auspices.

The campaign is on Indiegogo, the world’s leading platform for this popular and relatively new online fundraising tool. People use it to put forth all kinds of new ideas and projects, hoping to draw “crowd” support.

University Development has established a crowdfunding policy and selected Indiegogo as UC Davis’ vendor of choice, which means contributions to official UC Davis Indiegogo campaigns go through the development office — and do not count as researchers’ personal income.

Benjamin Hart, a distinguished professor emeritus in the School of Veterinary Medicine, is seeking $9,000 for the first phase of a project to benefit dogs’ long-term health, by determining the optimum age they should be when they are spayed or neutered.

Hart and his UC Davis colleagues discovered in recent studies of Labrador and golden retrievers how neutering them before the age of 6 months, which is common practice in the United States, significantly increased the occurrence of joint disorders — especially in the golden retrievers.

Now Hart wants to develop the world’s first science-based guidelines for mixed-breed puppies, so caregivers will have the information they need to make “healthy spay and neuter decisions.”

Learn more on the campaign page, which includes two videos: Hart tells how "our project will help mixed-breed dogs live a better life," and he gives some statistics, including, "We know that roughly two out of three family dogs are of mixed breed."

Though dog owners and veterinarians have a strong interest in the subject, the relatively small scope of the project would not meet the criteria typically required by large funding entities. So Hart and his team have turned to Indiegogo, the world’s most established crowdfunding platform and the university’s vendor of choice for a one-year pilot project.

“The Indiegogo staff has been helpful,” Hart said, “and the website for uploading the material is quite easy to use.” 

Benefits of crowdfunding through Indiegogo include:

• Researchers do not accrue tax liability, as they would if they pursued crowdfunding through any other vendor.
• As affiliates of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution, UC Davis researchers receive Indiegogo’s 25 percent discount on platform fees.
• Researchers do not need marketing expertise to effectively promote campaigns. Indiegogo includes robust social media tools, plus tips for campaign promotion offline. The university also provides a comprehensive marketing toolbox.
• Additionally, University Development has prepared helpful guidelines to complement Indiegogo’s user-friendly tips and tools, so that campaigns are compliant with UC and UC Davis policies and simple to execute.
• Indiegogo ensures every campaign is UC Davis-branded, and that gifts are tax deductible.

Hart’s Indiegogo site spells out how donations will be used: “Your support will help our university-trained students go through the cases of approximately 4,000 dogs (each case includes multiple visits) under the direct supervision of our full-time research associate. … Our research team already has extensive experience in similar work — meaning they can immediately get started on this research!”

The vet school's database totals 14,000 mixed-breed dogs in all; Hart and his colleagues have divided the dogs into five weight categories. This first Indiegogo campaign is for dogs weighing 45 to 64 pounds, a range that includes many different mixes, from goldendoodles and Labradoodles to pitskies and beaglemans, and dozens of other crosses and mixes. The campaign runs through midnight Dec. 8.

All proceeds from the campaign will go to the research — even if the campaign goal is not met. (Indiegogo also offers a campaign option that gives money back if the goal is not met.)

“I want to give dog caregivers the dignity of making an informed choice” on when to spay or neuter their dogs, Hart said. “About six years ago I was reviewing the research available on the adverse effects of neutering and realized it didn’t account for breed, sex or age of spaying or neutering. Our first two studies, and the huge amount of public interest in them, have inspired us to do much more. The Indiegogo campaign will enable us to do just that.”

University Development’s “Crowdfunding at UC Davis” website includes the university policy and information on how to create an Indiegogo account. Send questions to crowdfunding@ucdavis.edu.

Bookmark UC Davis’ Indiegogo page.

Corinna Fish of University Development and Dateline Editor Dave Jones contributed to this report.

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