Supporting Animal Shelters During a Recession
by During tough economic times, homeless and abandoned animals need all the help they can get. Give your local animal shelter a helping hand with one of the tips below.
For non-adopting supporters of animal shelters, there are many ways to help these overwhelmed institutions during tough economic times. Lend a helping hand and some extra support in the form of time, money, and a few simple donations that can help save animal lives.
Donations and Volunteering
The two most obvious contributions to any animal shelter are time and money. A few hours per week or month or a weekend volunteered at a shelter can help the organization care for the animals and the facility. Bathing and walking animals, cleaning holding areas, even cutting grass — all these are potential jobs awaiting a helping hand. For those who don’t have the time, any donations will be appreciated during this time, since statistics show that charitable contributions, including animal shelter funds, may drop during recessional times.
Donate Goods and Supplies
Instead of money, many shelters are willing to take extra goods and supplies donated by supporters. Unopened bags of dog and cat food, animal treats, even supplies like collars, leashes, toys, and bedding may be helpful for your local shelter.
Volunteer Services
For veterinary or animal medicine professionals, volunteering your skills at the shelter is a generous way to help save animals and prevent more homeless ones from ending up on the streets. Many vets donate their professional skills at spay and neuter clinics hosted by local animal shelters, which offer community members free or reduced-cost surgeries for their pets. Others volunteer their time to spay and neuter animals currently housed at the shelter before they are offered for adoption.
Others donate their time in the form of “foster family” services. Individuals who are approved for the program host a select number of up-for-adoption pets to prevent overcrowding and give the animals additional love and attention as they await their future home.
Inquire at your local animal shelter how best to help them during these difficult times. Your time, effort, and donations may help more homeless animals in your community find shelter from the streets — and may save the life of abandoned animals.
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Post CommentMichael
On July 22, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Great article! I work as an Animal Control Officer in Arizona and really appreciated the things you had to say. If you do not mind I would like to add something. Call your local shelter and ask them in what ways you could help them specifically. Our shelter for instance gets our food free, and due to insurance restraints we are not allowed to have volunteers. The best way to help shelters like ours is to either contribute to or start a spay/neutering certificate program. We recently lost ours due to lack of funding and it hurt our adoption rates terribly.