In honor of National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week during the week of Nov. 5, pet lovers are encouraging members of their community to lend a hand to their local shelters.
“In addition to providing food, care and shelter for unwanted pets … many (shelters) also offer outreach programs, providing dogs and cats to help children with learning difficulties or to visit sick or elderly people. To do all of this they rely on support from the public,” said veterinarian Sandra Newbury.
Newbury, who’s with the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine, suggests that community members assist their local shelters by donating pet food, blankets, towels or other supplies, by volunteering time at the shelter and by helping the shelter raise funds through community events.
People can also help by adopting pets from the shelter, by spaying or neutering their own pets and by reporting suspected animal abuse or neglect, she said.
The Koret Shelter Medicine Program focuses on the special veterinary medical issues associated with the shelter environment and offers advice and consultation services to shelter managers, and assists with dog-training classes for dogs adopted from shelters. It also offers diagnostic services for animal-welfare groups.
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week is commemorated each November in honor of animal shelters and their staffs across the United States.