FROM HUMANE SOCIETY OF ELMORE COUNTY
This is National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week, and Animal Shelter Staffs are working tirelessly helping the never-ending flood of homeless and unwanted pets day in and day out. Shelters provide a place for homeless and unwanted animals to go when no one else can take them in – the young ones, old ones, nice pets, vicious & scared, diseased, injured, starved, healthy – Shelters see them all. So please thank the staffs of Shelters in your area as besides helping animals in need they are also helping people, often with very little appreciation.
The #1 thing every pet owner can do to support Shelters is to be a Responsible Pet Owner:
A. Responsible owners keeping their pet safely at home so it does not get lost or injured adding to the load for Animal Control Officers, citizens and Shelters alike.
B. Responsible owners see to their pet’s physical and mental well-being so that they will live long and happy lives with the same family.
C. Responsible owners see to the medical needs of their pet, especially preventive Veterinary Care (vaccinations, parasite prevention to include heartworm prevention) to keep them healthy.
D. Responsible owners will spay or neuter their pet to prevent yet more unwanted litters – 60% of our Shelter’s intake is under six-months old so we know well the impact of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens.
E. Responsible owners do their homework before getting a pet so that it will be a good ‘fit’ for their family and lifestyle and not end up needing to be rehomed due to a spur of the moment or ill-informed decision.
F. Responsible owners educate their children on interacting with pets and helping in their care. After all, today’s children are tomorrow’s pet owners/advocates.
Responsible pet owners keep pets from coming into Shelters in the first place which needs to be the primary goal of our communities. True success in the Animal Sheltering world would be LESS need of our services, not more.
Shelters also need your moral support as what they deal with every day is very often overwhelming, heartbreaking and extremely frustrating. Shelter staff live the reality of far more animals coming in than are going out but not for their lack of trying. Unsocialized, scared, injured, diseased and dangerous animals are sadly a daily occurrence making Shelter work also quite hazardous for the staff. Shelter work is a field very often taken for granted by the public and all but ignored too often by community leadership.
Since most Shelters are non-profit organizations, of course they can also use your financial support whether that be by donating money, food, supplies, your time, and your advocacy. Just like every home and business, costs for utilities, pet food and supplies, wages, facility upkeep, insurance, vehicles, fuel costs and more keep going up. Your support helps ensure that your community will have a Shelter as adopting and rescuing many pets starts with them having a place to go in the first place. Our Shelter averages 13 animals coming in every single day we are open with far too many days having 25-30 or even more. In large cities those DAILY intake numbers are in the hundreds! If your community did not have a Shelter, then where would all of those animals go? Think about that!
