Ways to help your local shelter
Did you know that over 6 million animals enter shelters nationwide every year? Local animal shelters play a vital role in communities when searching for a new pet or returning pets to a loved one. Most of the time, these shelters rely on community support and volunteers to keep their doors open. Here are a few ways that you can help your local shelter.
Volunteer Your Time
There is a lot that goes into running an animal shelter such as cleaning kennels, feeding, administering medicine, and making sure the animals get the exercise and socialization that they need. That is why it takes a team of people to keep animal shelters running. Since they are usually run by private fundraising efforts, volunteers are heavily relied upon. Each shelter has different volunteer needs, so talk to your local shelter to see how youâd fit in.
Foster A Pet
There comes a time where shelters may be too full to hold all the pets they have taken in, and fostering becomes even more important. Fostering requires you to open your home as a temporary place for a pet to stay while they wait for adoption. This may be a bigger step in commitment, but this effort is one of the biggest ways you can help your local shelter.
Each facility is different, and the requirements may change based on what they need. Depending on the shelter, all equipment and supplies for the animal may be taken care of. If not, consider purchasing a bed, bowls, toys, and food for your foster. Most of the time, the main goal is to help get a pet more comfortable in a household setting.
Support Them Online
What may seem like a common suggestion these days, supporting your local animal shelter on social media platforms, is a great way to help increase their reach. It is a common practice for shelters to post their new arrivals on sites, like Facebook, to alert people who might be interested. When you share that post, it increases awareness to those you know as well to help the shelter reach more potential pet parents. Sharing a post only takes seconds and can help a pet get adopted!
