The Internet is a black hole, which can take any perfectly productive day and turn it into a void of nothingness. Add cute videos of animals, and suddenly there is no point to even leaving the house.
The Pet Collective understands this, and its job is to make sure that there is not only an abundance of cute animal videos, but that they are of the highest quality. Launched in May 2012, the Pet Collective carries 33.8 million viewers — myself included.
We took a moment to talk to Pet Collective Coordinating Producer Dawn Poomee about today’s relaunch of the site, the goodies it has in store for the future, and the guilt the Pet Collective must feel from distracting us from being productive, hard-working citizens who want to do nothing but watch the parody Paw Warz.
Dogster: How did the Pet Collective get started?
Dawn Poomee: In May of 2012 the Pet Collective launched. The production team is from FremantleMedia the people who do television shows like American Idol and X Factor.
We were first approached by YouTube because they were hoping to collaborate with others in order to up the quality of their content. YouTube has always had funny videos, but they wanted to pursue various production companies who wanted to bring Internet programming to another level.
What can you tell me about the Pet Collective?
We are very family friendly, as we believe in loving and sharing our lives with our pets. It’s about the human-animal bond; how they are our friends and family who can make us both laugh and cry. It’s to show the deep, intrinsic connection that we all feel with our animals. All of our shows fall under a very specific ethos that tugs at that sentiment. Specifically, it’s an ethos that falls under our label “FACE,” which means funny, awesome, cuddly, and emotional.
If you look at our channel, our best content falls under those four categories
How does Pet Collective separate themselves from other channels that feature similar videos?
We are always on the lookout for what’s new on the Internet. We got our paw on the heartbeat of America!
Are there any special videos fans can look forward to with the relaunch of the site?
We are working on a Miley Cyrus video that we plan to make into a parody, like our Katy Perry and Macklemore videos. We have development meetings every week and discuss what is happening in pop culture and see if it translates well with animals. We always have at least one “petody” a week.
Do animal celebrities, such as Lil Bub, help or compete with the Pet Collective?
We don’t consider other channels as competition, as what we would pefer to do is collaborate. To create a social presence is all about sharing. We actually do have a relationship with Lil Bub. It’s coming out in a couple weeks, and it’s all about how she rose to fame and how she’s dealing with it.
What changes can fans expect with the new site?
You’ll see that our website looks similar to Buzzfeed, and we’re upgrading the video section to make original Pet Collective videos more prominent.
Currently Pet Collective focuses heavily on a lot of humor. Will this continue with the new site?
Even though the Pet Collective loves to do cute and cuddly content, what I really enjoy doing is our heartwarming content, which brings awareness to shelter animals and rescue animals — spreading the message that adoption is a good thing and showing people they shouldn’t be fooled by the misconceptions that come with adopting from a shelter.
Take our new series called Unsung Heroes, which is about that one special person who makes a different in the lives of pets — like the person who is volunteering their time just washing towels or clothes at a rescue, for example. It’s a feature on the great people in the animal world that don’t always get noticed. We want to emphasize that everyone can make a difference.
The videos largely consist of cats and dogs, with the occasional turtle or duckling. Are there any future plans to include more animals?
The Pet Collective is generally about domestic pets, but we do want to delve into more wild animals. Especially with the live cams, because they give a sense of the lives of animals you do not see in everyday life.
Our Eagle Cam does phenomenally better than many of our videos, and I think the reason why is because it has a universal appeal. It’s not just about pets. It allows us to see something we otherwise couldn’t. It’s amazing because we set up our cameras, and the eagles don’t even notice it. It’s a way of enjoying them without disturbing them.
Read more about the Pet Collective:
- The Pet Collective Rocks Katy Puppy’s “California Gurls”
- The Pet Collective Parodies “Breaking Dawn” with “Barking Dawg
- The Pet Collective’s Husky Puppy Cam Streams Cuteness
- Abandoned and Covered In Scars, Bronco Learns to Love Again
- Firefly the Dog Miraculously Survives Having 80 Percent of Her Body Covered in Burns
