How You Can Help Your Local Animal Shelter

When most people think of helping an animal shelter, they think of monetary donations. Others think of volunteering a large amount of their time. While donating money and volunteering are important, there are many other ways you can help your local shelter as well. You don't need to be wealthy or have a lot of spare time to help the animals. In fact, there are some ways for you to help that don't even involve driving to the shelter. Everyone can help out in some way if they desire to do so.

Monetary Donations

Donations don't have to be large to help. Consider this: a bale of hay to feed the shelter's farm animals usually costs around $15 (depending on the type of hay), shelters buy dog and cat food in bulk which means they get the food a lot cheaper than your pet's food, and cleaning supplies are also purchased in bulk to save money. Shelter workers typically aren't paid a lot, although that's not to say that there isn't some corruption in the animal shelter system. Look into your local shelter and see how they spend their money. If you approve of how the shelter is run and want to help out by donating, donate however much you feel comfortable with.

Donating Items

Not everyone has extra money to donate, but just about anyone has extra items sitting around the house collecting dust. Maybe you bought something and never used it, maybe you only needed something for a few uses and then you were done with it, or maybe you'd just prefer to donate items rather than money. Shelters often need items such as: cleaning supplies that are pet safe (such as Dawn dishsoap), bleach, hoses, paper towels, bath towels, blankets, pet food, office supplies, digital cameras, and even computers. Do you like to change around your bathroom theme every so often? Don't throw those old towels away! Did the kids outgrow their cartoon character blankets? Dogs don't care what color blankets they have to sleep on, anything is great. Did you buy too much hay and won't be able to use it all before it goes bad? Donate some! Perhaps your pet died recently and you have supplies to get rid of. Supplies such as rabbit hutches are often very much appreciated, as typical shelters have cat cages and dog kennels, but often do not have sufficient housing for rabbits (which are now seen in shelters frequently). Maybe you bought a new digital camera and now you don't need your old one. Even a one megapixel camera will be good enough for a shelter to use to take some photos and stick them up on Petfinder, where the photos don't need to be large. Many shelters have a wish list posted, so if you are unsure of what items to donate, ask them for a copy of their wish list.

Volunteering

Volunteering takes time, but how much time depends on a few factors. The shelter may have a minimum to how many hours you must volunteer per week (usually only 2 to 4 hours). Some shelters also place other restrictions on volunteers. Volunteers often need to meet an age requirement (typically 16 or 18 years of age), be in good physical condition, be able to lift a certain number of pounds, and have prior experience as well for some volunteer positions. Some shelters will have junior volunteer programs as well so that those under their normal volunteer age requirement can still help out. Junior volunteers often help out at adoption days, help to decorate donation boxes, create posters, and participate in other non-demanding, but essential tasks. Some shelters will make exceptions to their minimum hours required as well, so it doesn't hurt to ask. For example, when I used to volunteer taking photos of shelter pets, I often only stayed for 30 minutes. If the job is something that needs to be done, but doesn't take 4 hours, you should be able to just go home when you're finished with your task (of course, you must clear this with the specific shelter first, some shelters might find other things for you to do to keep you occupied for 4 hours). If you are physically handicapped or cannot meet their physical requirements, again, don't be afraid to ask if there are exceptions. These rules generally aren't set in stone, they are simply guidelines. You can still volunteer to help with paperwork even if you can't lift a 20 pound dog. Of course, for some positions you aren't going to be able to get out of needing to meet the requirements. If you're applying to volunteer as a vet assistant, you're probably going to need to have some previous experience. Generally, volunteering also involves driving to the shelter, so you'll probably need to have a car. Sometimes however, shelters will have online tasks that need to be done as well. A lot of shelters now work with Petfinder to show their adoptable animals online. When I volunteered to take photos of shelter pets, I did not also volunteer to update Petfinder. So I would email the photos to another volunteer, who did the Petfinder page. If you like to help out online, ask and see if any opportunities are available. If you want to volunteer with animals and your local shelter doesn't seem to be the place you are looking for, look into rescues in your area as well. Anyone with even a small amount of spare time can volunteer if they desire to do so.

Raising Awareness

Perhaps you own a popular website where many people visit each day. If you're unable to help the shelter yourself (or just want to help even more), you can always help by advertising the shelter on your website. Make people aware that the shelter exists, post their wish list for items, encourage those who have time to volunteer, and encourage those who have money to donate. You may also wish to feature some of the animals available for adoption. Think about it this way, if you are able to adopt, you'll save the one or two pets you adopt. If you volunteer 4 hours a week, you're helping out. If you donate $20, you helped feed a lot of animals that day. If you put up information about the shelter on your website that ends up bringing in 10 new volunteers, 5 monetary donations, a truckload of donated items, and gets 20 people to go to that shelter and adopt, you really helped that shelter a lot! Just by sitting home and putting up information on your website. Of course, none of that help could have been done if other people didn't step up and volunteer, donate, and adopt. However, you inspired their action. Always check first with a shelter before putting up information about them on your website. Generally, they'll be fine with it as obviously you're helping them out. Even if you don't have a website (or even a blog) to advertise with, many shelters do have bumper stickers and t-shirts. These are somewhat less effective methods, but everything helps.

Adoption

Of course, one obvious answer to helping the animals is to adopt. Rather than buying your next puppy from a pet shop (and therefore, a puppy mill), adopt a puppy (or adult dog) from the shelter. Instead of going to Joe's backyard to buy a rabbit, adopt a pair from your local shelter. Remember that all sorts of animals end up in shelters. Many puppies, even purebreds are available. Exotic pets such as iguanas, snakes, tarantulas, parrots, chinchillas, and others also end up in shelters. Without adoptions, the animals in a shelter would all be euthanized. No matter how many donations there were, no matter how many volunteers available, if the pets didn't get adopted, they wouldn't be able to stay in the shelter forever. As it is, there are already too many homeless pets out there. You're not going to be able to save them all. But think about that difference for the one dog you do bring home, or the pair of rabbits, or the guinea pigs, or whoever you decide to adopt. That animal would have been euthanized (generally, except for at no-kill shelters). Without you, that animal wouldn't be around. Shelters need people to adopt, or they simply end up being holding facilities for homeless animals to stay until they are euthanized. Adopting and referring other adopters is a wonderful way to help the animals.

Fostering

Many shelters also offer fostering programs. Perhaps during kitten season when there are too many kittens and not enough space at the shelter, you have room to take a few home. You aren't able to adopt that many kittens, but temporarily you can watch a few and give them an extended chance at finding homes. Pets often come into shelters neglected and in need of medical treatment. After their immediate treatment, the animals need to recover. A foster home is a nice place to recover and sure beats a dog kennel at the shelter. If the dog can recover in your home rather than at the shelter, it also means that it won't be euthanized for lack of space. If your shelter doesn't offer a fostering program and this is something you want to do, look into rescue groups in your area.

Use the resources available to you to figure out what you want to do to help the animals. If you are making plenty of extra money, perhaps you would wish to help by making a donation. If you have several items that the shelter could use, consider donating them. Maybe you are a student and need volunteer hours, consider an animal shelter or a rescue group. Perhaps you're looking to bring an animal into your home, consider adopting your next pet. If you temporarily have room for more pets, consider fostering. Don't underestimate the value of referrals either. Raising awareness about a shelter is a very valuable way of helping. Remember that everything helps when it's all pieced together. Don't underestimate yourself and what you can do to help the animals. Everyone is able to help out in some way.