Key Takeaways
- Donate or Volunteer
- Keep Animals Out of Shelters
- Spay or Neuter Your Pet
- Pet News & Entertainment
- Animal Advocacy
Have time to volunteer? Awesome. Able to adopt a dog or cat? Even better.
As we get ready to officially enter summer, animal shelters across the country are readying themselves for their busy seasons. Unfortunately, many are already overcrowded.
Adoptions are down, and many animals are staying in shelters longer than before. All the while, shelters are still taking in animals. That's put them at risk of euthanasia, especially dogs. If animal shelters—namely larger, open-admission facilities—can't get enough animals out the door, they may have no choice but to euthanize.
So there's plenty we can do to help. We originally wrote this story in 2022, but the recommendations are worth reiterating as animal shelters are still in crisis.
"Now's the time to act," says Stephanie Filer, executive director of Shelter Animals Count. "That's certainly the call to action."
Yeah, it's pretty obvious, but the best way to help a cat or dog in a shelter is to get them out of the shelter. Even in the best of times—when shelter pets are healthy and receive plenty of enrichment—the facilities can still be stressful places for our pets, Holly Sizemore, chief mission officer for Best Friends Animal Society, said last year.
She encourages potential pet owners to open their minds and maybe consider adopting pets who are different from the ones they've always envisioned.
"We just need a few people who may have been thinking about it to just take the leap and go visit their local shelter," Sizemore tells Petcare Hub.
Not ready for a long-term commitment? Try fostering a dog or cat. Jerrica Owen, executive director of the National Animal Care & Control Association, said that can make a "huge" difference, even if the fostering period only lasts a few days.
Fostering allows you, and the shelter staff, to see how pets act when they're living outside the shelter, she says. That provides potentially valuable information to help them get adopted all while freeing up some much-needed space at the shelter. (Plus, there's nothing wrong with a foster fail.)
Donate or Volunteer
Another obvious one. Your local shelter will probably welcome an extra set of hands to clean kennels or play with puppies. Have veterinary experience? Even better. Your local shelter could really use you.
We don't all have extra time, however, so maybe all you can give is money or pet-care items. That helps! Chewy has a database that can identify shelters and rescues in your area that need supplies and toys. Others publish their wish lists on their websites.
Keep Animals Out of Shelters
If you can't take a dog or cat out of a shelter, maybe you can keep them from going in at all. While they boast dedicated, hardworking staff, shelters can be disease hotspots, and reducing the number of lost pets who end up there can help control the spread of disease. Also, people reclaiming their lost pets often have to pay an overnight fee to take them back home—which can be a barrier to reunification.
And remember, the shelters are crowded right now anyhow. No need to add extra stress if you can help it.
So if you come across a friendly lost dog or cat, do what Owen did last year. A lost Chihuahua made their way into her yard. Knowing the dog's home was probably close by, Owen posted the lost dog on Facebook, and the owners knew where their dog was within half an hour.
"They were so happy," Owen says.
So you can temporarily take in lost pets and post to social media, but you can also see if there are any locations near you—a vet's office or fire station perhaps—where you can go to scan a lost pet's microchip, Owen says. That can save another trip to the shelter.
Spay or Neuter Your Pet
These procedures are a responsible part of pet ownership, but they can also affect animal shelters. Spaying or neutering your pet prevents accidental pregnancies, which often end up with litters arriving at the nearby shelter or agency.
It's especially important after millions of dogs and cats went unspayed and unneutered during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to the overcrowding many shelters are dealing with in 2023.
Spread the Word
If you know your local shelter or nonprofit could use some help, take to social media or talk to your friends to see who can donate or volunteer. You can even retweet or re-post lost pet notices, helping get them in front of the right pair of eyes.
More hands—typing, playing, or even shoveling—makes less work!
