"Sometimes, big problems call for the brightest minds to come together and create social change 🙌
At PetRescue we believe (and have witnessed!) that taking giant leaps of faith in advancing technology can lead to ground-breaking and progressive solutions to create a better tomorrow for every pet in Australia."
PetRescue Pet Hack website
"Pet lovers come together to reimagine the future for pets
Thanks to an incredibly skilled community of innovators joining PetRescue and Google in this mission to disrupt the animal welfare sector, the outcome for Australian pets has never looked more promising."
"PetHack 2020
The first half of September was abuzz with excitement as 100+ talented individuals from across the country came together for a virtual Hackathon, hosted by PetRescue and aided by Google Australia.
27 teams were put to the challenge of saving a 100,000 lives 💪
As part of not one, but two events that took place during the second week of September, teams from different backgrounds were formed and broke out in their individual virtual rooms, and put on their innovation hats to tackle some of the following problem(s)..."
"PetRescue hackathons are all about…
Racking our brains to hatch the next big (or small) idea that can pull together the broken parts of the existing system, or overhaul it completely. Pethacks encourage participants to innovate and push the envelope to challenge and create sustainable, measurable solutions by tackling the problem spaces that send pets into the system 💪"
Vet Practice Magazine
"An Australian charity is creating a first of its kind digital event for the animal welfare sector which it hopes will save 100,000 lives and ultimately bring about systemic change.
PetRescue has announced two online hackathon events with help from Google, to be held this September. Both events are designed to bring together groups of skilled professionals with diverse skill sets and perspectives to solve problems within a set time limit, using technology as an enabler.
Participants from organisations across a wide range of industries including tech, manufacturing, retail, education and advertising will be given the challenge of saving 100,000* healthy pets—the number estimated to be killed in council pounds and shelters each year. Most are never given the chance to find a new home.
PetRescue is calling for the brightest minds in tech to bring fresh ideas and create prototypes to help solve this issue.
“New creative thinking and innovation is needed,” PetRescue co-founder Vickie Davy said."
(Bolding mine)
What happens when you get together a bunch of people who don't have any connection to rescue or rescue groups, to brainstorm how to "... fix the pound..." and "... disrupt the animal welfare sector..."
Well, the results of PetRescue's #PetHack2020 are in, and the winner is.....
Winners - Big Ideas Session (weekday event)
Idea: The Phantoms proposed a ‘Lost and Found’ section on the PetRescue website...
Yes. All that professional intelligence, and they've come up with PetLost - an idea PetRescue fundraised on back in 2014.
... but hangon.... this isn't the only winner - it was a tie. According to PetRescue "both ideas were equally amazing."
Idea: 9 Lives proposed a unique approach to microchip lookup and notifications...
Microchips! Well thank dog google was available to oversee the idea of microchipping pets.
... but but but.... there's another winner.
Winners - Weekend Hackathon
Idea: The Kitty Coders proposed the idea for a unique ‘Smart trap’ that collects data, catches only un-chipped cats, and streams video to a social platform that will promote and fund the trap’s use in the community...
Cat traps! But a smart one with internet or something something. Because using wifi to allow people to watch cats smash their faces, and cower and shit themselves in terror, was decided by the judges to be the best idea of the entire weekend.
PetRescue - still wasting the rescue community's resources
A virtual, five-day event which eschewed experts in pound operations and animal rescue, in favour of random tech people with no actual knowledge of the issues, was always going to throw up ideas that were redundant or impractical. There are a lot of very qualified rescue people who could have been invited to the hack, but... community engagement is hard you guys.
PetRescue have burnt through so much of the goodwill they need to be the rescue movement leaders they claim to be, that they've been forced to resort to a kind of sleight of hand... look over here, shiny things. And the result is an enomous pile of bullshark which helps no pets, nor the people who actually do rescue them. Again, PetRescue has let down the rescue community through their own hubris and narcissism.
#RespectingRescue