Monday is the perfect time to celebrate the shelter dog in your life. The first of August serves as the Universal Birthday for Shelter Dogs, also known as “DOGust 1st.”
Thousands of dogs are adopted from shelters across the country every year, and many are brought into new homes with no way of knowing their actual birthdays or how best to celebrate them. So in 2008, “the world’s largest no-kill animal rescue and adoption organization,” – the North Shore Animal League of America – selected August, (DOGust) 1st as the Universal Birthday for Shelter Dogs.
According to the NSALA website, “Everybody loves a birthday…. Rescue dogs deserve birthday celebrations and that was the thinking when North Shore Animal League America declared the first day of August as DOGust 1st®, the official birthday of all rescue dogs or as we like to call them, Mutt-i-grees.”
A pioneer of the no-kill movement, North Shore Animal League America continues to lead the way with the development of national and international programs that increase adoptions and raise awareness about the plight of homeless animals. Now the day is used by local shelters as an opportunity to clear space and get more dogs adopted and into permanent homes.
But NSALA isn’t the only one throwing an adoption party. Anyone hoping to celebrate DOGust 1 by bringing home a new member of the family should reach out to your local shelter to see how you can make a shelter dog’s birthday extra special.
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