June is National Foster a Pet Month. This month is observed around the country by people who foster animals in order to educate the public about what it takes to foster and how they can begin the process.
Fostering offers animals in need a temporary home to experience the love and care they need to help them become more “adoptable,” and give them a better chance at finding their forever homes. However, it involves real time and attention. Many avoid fostering because they don’t know how, or jump into it without having the right information, both of which don’t help the thousands of homeless animals in the country.
Fostering may include providing medication and socialization opportunities to animals in addition to food and shelter. Foster homes play an important role in facilitating adoption by preparing pet animals for adoption in many different ways. Most badly-behaved animals in shelters suffer from “kennel stress,” which is easily remedied by fostering.
Foster homes are a space for abandoned or feral animals to be introduced to life with humans. Fostering is a rewarding experience for most people who are able to take pride in nurturing a hungry frightened animal into a well-groomed, healthy animal who can be adopted into a family that can care for the animal for the rest of its life. And fostering pets doesn’t have to be long-term – it can be as simple as taking an animal in for the night.
Did you know that animals saved in shelters rose from 75% to 90% when pet fostering was introduced? Fostering is an extremely important alternative to the animal being sent to a shelter, which is likely already at capacity. The majority of shelters also put down or euthanize the animals in their care due to a lack of space. Often, animals are put down despite being perfectly healthy and adoptable because the shelter needs space and the animal hasn’t been adopted fast enough.
Fostering ensures that these animals have a temporary home and don’t need to be adopted immediately. Fostering a pet also allows people time to find the appropriate home that will suit the animal and its specific needs. Most fosters keep the animal as long as it takes to find a home, which is a much better alternative to putting them down.
HOW TO OBSERVE NATIONAL FOSTER A PET MONTH
- Foster a pet this month! A great way of showing your support during this month is to foster a pet. Head over to your nearest animal shelter and take on the animal or animals that you can.
- Support no-kill shelters! Support no-kill shelters by sharing their adoptable pet information. You can also donate money to help them with their expenses.
- Talk to people about fostering! Share information and build a data bank about fostering animals. Spread the information among people who want to adopt as well so they know where to look.
GreaterGood.org is compiling a list of shelters and rescues looking for foster families and matches those groups with fostering volunteers from the national community.
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