Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/animal-shelter-appreciation-week/
November is all about food, turkey, and family, but those aren’t the only reasons we’re grateful.
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week–running from November 7-13, 2021–is a way to thank hardworking shelters for saving animals’ lives throughout the year.
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week was founded in 1996 to recognize the critical role shelters play across the country.
Now celebrated every year during the first full week of November, National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week remains an excellent time to show your support-–especially after a pandemic that’s left shelters busier than ever before!
Read on for 7 ways to help shelters (and by extension, shelter animals) during National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week!
7. Adopt a shelter pet
Adopting a shelter pet is one of the best ways to support shelters and save lives. Adopting a dog or cat helps shelters fulfill their mission, make room for the next rescue, and gives shelter pets a forever home.
6. Foster a shelter pet
If you can’t adopt, fostering a shelter pet is the next best thing–especially during a pandemic that’s triggered widespread shelter overcrowding. Many shelters are desperate for foster parents to lend shelter dogs or cats a temporary home.
5. Help rebuild an animal shelter
Shelters are so busy saving lives that they often don’t have enough leftover cash to repair their own facilities. This urgent dilemma inspired Greater Good Charities’ Rescue Rebuild program, which helps repair and upgrade animal shelters across the country. Make a donation to help support this important work.
4. Help overcrowded shelters
Shelters play a critical role across the country, but demand for adoption varies by region. This leaves some shelters overcrowded with animals (who thus face greater risk of euthanasia) while other shelters are actively looking for pets.
You can help us correct this imbalance by funding Flights to Freedom, which will fly adoptable shelter pets from Louisiana (where shelters are chronically full) to safety on the east coast, where they’ll be adopted in days.
3. Help shelters prep rescues for adoption
There are many reasons to adopt a shelter pet, starting with the simple fact that adoption saves lives. But shelter pets are also cheaper and healthier than their fully bred counterparts, in part because they’re spayed, neutered, and vaccinated prior adoption.
Of course, it isn’t cheap transform rescued animals into healthy and adoptable pets, especially as veterinary costs rise. Can you spare $10 to help our shelter partners vaccinate and spay/neuter the dogs and cats in their care?
2. Donate critical shelter supplies
In-kind donations are another meaningful way to show your appreciation during National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week. Make a one-time or recurring donation to help keep shelters stocked with pet food bowls, leashes, collars, beds, toys, blankets, and other critical supplies.
1. Feed hungry shelter pets
Pet food is always a shelter’s biggest expense, making donations of healthy pet food always welcome. Contact your local shelter to organize a drop-off, donate shelter meals through GreaterGood, or visit the Animal Rescue Site, where your free daily clicks help generate funding for our charity partners.
You can also help feed hungry animals simply by shopping in the Animal Rescue Site Store, where every purchase funds food for shelter animals!
How do you celebrate National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week?
Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog
