Australia's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) - Essay Sample

Introduction

Animals are our close companions, our workers, and our food, which can positively impact our lives' quality. Australia’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has been at the forefront of running animal rehoming shelters, examining and press charges against individuals accused of animal cruelty, and enlightening the broader society on the significance of animal wellbeing and responsible pet ownership. The organization is the leading source of animal well-being science and collaborates with multiple governments, institutions, and companies to campaign for animal welfare about various global issues. The organization provides essential information and advice regarding animals' state and participates in public reforms intended to enhance care for animals (RSCPA Australia, 2020). Since it a federation, RSPCA Australia communicates and participates in discussions with various stakeholders and concerned individuals to contribute to animal welfare science and attain the set objectives.

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Since the technology advancements have changed the nature and dynamics of communication, RSPCA Australia has adopted an engaging website to communicate and collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders and any concerned individual with the organization. The website creation's primary priority was to engage Australian citizens in approaches they anticipated, such as enhancing engagement and encouraging animal shelters visit and tour visits (RSCPA Australia, 2020). This paper discusses the RSPCA website in detail and offers recommendations for enhancements from the RSPCA UK and RSPCA USA websites.

Content of RSCPA Australia

The RSCPA's website platform offers a rich user experience and other extension links to crucial content for both its internal and external stakeholders. The website has numerous microsites to enable communication of meaningful content. For instance, the microsites meet user's demands by allowing them to set up and oversee their animal advocacy programs to increase exposure and value of their efforts. The website constitutes of images, texts, icons, animations, and short videos corning animal wellbeing. Moreover, the website contains relevant documents, links to crucial data such as e-News, and graphics.

Since RSCPA Australia engages in animals-related actions, the primary theme on its web pages is animal graphics. Numerous users who access the website do so in the quest for information and any other form of communication on the website that may be presented in graphics and documents. RSCPA Australia induces images of both healthy and needy animals to communicate various content. The content on the website is brief and concise, with the aim of not overwhelming a visitor. Further links and directions to full and comprehensive information are available on the website to enhance communication and engagement. The RSCPA Australia contents use the principle of an inverted pyramid to enable their site visitors not to lose their interest when navigating the website. According to Joshi and Mathur (2004), the inverted pyramid principle starts the article or the website with a conclusion to enable acquiring enough knowledge quickly without even reading the entire website or article. For instance, the RSCPA Australia website states, "for all creatures great and small" to summarize the organizational content and practices (RSCPA Australia, 2020).

Structure of the RSCPA Australia Website

The structure implies how RSCPA Australia organizes its website's content. RSCPA Australia uses the matrix and database model to structure its website. The website contents are based on information architecture standards that can enable site visitors and users to create experiences concerning what they are inquiring about. The website has navigation and search parameters and pull-related information to allow users to access the contents. The site has numerous amounts of data available and collection of links to documents and ideas to visitors and users on a single page. For instance, the home page has "WHAT WE DO, SUPPORT US, TAKE ACTION, THE FACTS, and ADOPT A PET" tabs. Moreover, more tabs, including "media center, blog, about us, contact us, report animal cruelty, RSPCA e-News, educational resources, the facts” among others (RSCPA Australia, 2020). This implies the website has numerous content that concerns animal welfare, using transitional images of animals, and documents to communicate, hence a need for filtering and search components.

Purpose of the Website

The primary website's role is to engage and communicate with various audiences concerning animal welfare. The website enables the organization to add more value to its operations chain by allowing visitors to set up and oversee their campaigns. The website is an essential avenue for attracting donors and well-wishers to ensure enough mobilization for relevant resources. Quality internal and external engagement through the website has established more effective relationships with organizational personnel, branches, and the entire audience. A website is an essential tool that swiftly responds to prevailing issues concerning animal wellbeing, with corresponding positive impacts on income as advocacy enlightenment and donations increase.

Review of U.S.'s ASPCA and U.K.'s RSPCA Websites

The RSPCA's U.K. website provides information that guides people to find pets and become involved in the agency's programs (RSPCA, 2020). the website users are given choices of providing homes to animals by adopting them or taking them into foster care. Animal adopters are also offered advice on how they should take care of animals and pets. The website also provides information about advice given to animal and pet owners concerning animal welfare. The website is concerned with pets, farm animals, lab animals, performing animals, and wildlife. The "advice and welfare" section also addresses the issues of environmental conservation and seasonal advice.

Like the RSPCA's websites in Australia and the United States, the U.K. website also guides users to make donations and report any cruelty done to animals (ASPCA, 2020; RSPCA, 2020). The website outlines safety measures that individuals need to take while taking dogs out for walks. This update is essential in ensuring that the fight against the pandemic. The websites in all three countries outline the duties of the organization in preventing animal cruelty. They outline how the organization operates in each state. The primary purposes include providing care for animals, fighting cruelty, and educating the public on ending animal cruelty.

The ASPCA's website states the organization's measures to respond to cases of animal cruelty (ASPCA, 2020). It says that the organization rescues animals, organizes their placement, and ensures that they are protected from cruelty. The website also provides updates concerning the current issues related to animal cruelty in society. For instance, a publication posted on 17 September 2020 reports that modern chickens' unnatural growth rates in the United States cause them to suffer infections and injuries (ASPCA, 2020). These birds are raised for meat in the country. This post is meant to create awareness and possibly impact policy reforms to protect the animals.

Recommendations Concerning the RSPCA's Australia Website

Graphic Design

For any website, graphic design makes an important aspect. It increases the visual appeal, usability, value of the brand, and professionalism (Cebi, 2013). The visuals for RSPCA's U.K and U.S. websites are very appealing to users. The images used are of considerable size, bright, and are accompanied by appropriate texts. These features have a positive impact on the communication of information by the websites. They enhance the feeling of connection between the user and the content and aesthetic senses.

The Australian website should enhance its visual appeal to make it more attention-catching. It uses smaller images and has multiple sections appearing on one screen. The most important content should take a more significant section of the website to allow the website to enhance communication. For example, the images of pets and other animals suffering cruelty should be larger to attract the users' attention. The lack of visual appeal affects the usability of the website as it distracts attention. Therefore, the Australian RSPCA should reform its website paying close attention to the graphic designs used.

Publishing Achievements

The RSPCA's U.K. and U.S. websites publish information about the achievements they have made in the past. For instance, a post published on 16 September 2020 on the U.S website indicates that the organization has provided emergency shelter for animals displaced in Louisiana (ASPCA, 2020). On the other hand, the U.K. website suggests that the organization collected and rescued over 102900 animals in 2019 alone (RSPCA, 2020). The Australian website should include information about the achievements they have made in the past to indicate how they are progressing in fighting animal cruelty.

Stakeholders

The Australian website publishes information regarding the member societies that they have worked with in the past (RSPCA Australia, 2020). However, they do not include information about other stakeholders. The U.S. website indicates that they have a partnership with Subaru and ASPCA Pet Health Insurance. The Australian website should show that it has partnerships with the government and other organizations to fight animal cruelty. This aspect will help in giving the website more credibility for its users.

Conclusion

The RSPCA organization's primary goal is to prevent animal cruelty. It works with community members in responding to animal cruelty cases, collecting, rescuing, providing food, treatment, and homes to animals and pets. The organization utilizes its websites in various countries to create awareness and ask for support in carrying out operations. The website content also provides information to animal and pet owners regarding how they should take care of their animals. While comparing the Australian website with those of the U.K. and the U.S., there are necessary aspects that it should include. These are improving the graphic design, including a publication of the achievements, and providing a list of the organization's partners in the country.

References

ASPCA. (2020). ASPCA | American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. ASPCA.org. Retrieved 1 October 2020, from https://www.aspca.org/.

Cebi, S. (2013). Determining importance degrees of website design parameters based on interactions and types of websites. Decision Support Systems, 54(2), 1030-1043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2012.10.036

Joshi, A., & Mathur, G. (2004). The inverted pyramid approach in user interface design for interactive information retrieval. In Proceedings of the EASY3 (CHI South India) Annual Conference.

RSCPA Australia. (2020). RSCPA Australia. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. https://www.rspca.org.au/what-we-do

RSPCA. (2020). The Largest Animal Welfare Charity in the UK | RSPCA. Rspca.org.uk. Retrieved 1 October 2020, from https://www.rspca.org.uk/home.