Langley’s animal shelter has gone live. Now online viewers can watch kittens doing what kittens do best, observe dog assessments or even see furry tail endings come true.
“A Day in the Life at LAPS” streams 24/7 regardless of what is going on, and they also schedule times when they show adoptable dogs, puppy training and even kittens being born.
The LAPS show has already taken off with several hundred people watching all over the world. Viewers are able to talk to each other about what they are seeing in real time. So far, the kitten segments are the most popular.
The idea came from animal care supervisor Kayla Chapman and lead animal care attendant Lneya Ishmail.
The pair manage all things kitten related at the shelter, from supporting the foster families, to bottle feeding babies and helping the sick animals that arrive, including dealing with ringworm and fleas.
“Kayla and I were sharing a litter of six that came to us just three days old, and needed to be bottle fed throughout the night,” said Ishmail.
“We were up anyways, so we started live streaming our bottle feeds and the kittens in hopes it would make these little ones have a better chance of being adopted,” said Chapman.
With technical help from the founder of Tinykittens.com, Shelly Roche, the pair set up cameras all over the shelter.
In the beginning, they had only around 30 people watching, but it was still effective, because those initial kittens all found homes.
Then they got the idea to put all of the shelter’s unpredictability live on the internet.
It’s been a huge hit, which is great because LAPS is having a record year for kittens.
“We are at 180 kittens which is close to double what we had this time last year,” said shelter manager Sean Baker.
Fans of the live streaming have been very generous. With one litter, $2,600 was donated.
“That will cover that litter’s costs up to adoption,” he said.
People are tuning in from all over the world. Outside of Canada, viewers are mainly from the U.S., followed by the UK and then Australia. Baker just took a call from a woman in North Carolina who asked how she could send monthly donations.
“It’s been a real boost,” Baker said.
The live streaming provides education and reaches a huge audience, it also helps get kittens adopted and helps fund the expenses incurred daily taking care of animals.
See the LAPS livestream at https://livestream.com/accounts/14083503