Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/international-homeless-animals-day/

Millions of homeless animals enter U.S. shelters each year, but countless more aren’t even this lucky. These doomed creatures will spend their days dodging hunger, traffic, and death as they fend for themselves in the streets, never knowing the comfort and safety of basic shelter or a loving home.

This growing predicament inspired International Homeless Animals Day, which was founded by The International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR) in 1992. Observed the third Saturday of August every year, International Homeless Animals Day isn’t a celebration, per se, but a time to remember homeless animals across the globe. This year, International Homeless Animals Day will be observed on Saturday, August 21, 2021.

Fortunately, there are many ways to help homeless animals on Saturday and every day of the year! Read on for 4 life-saving ways to observe International Homeless Animals Day.

1. Adopt, don’t shop!

The best way to you can help homeless animals is to adopt, not shop. Not only does breeding exacerbate homeless animal populations, animal adoption places rescued pets in their own homes and makes space for shelters to save the next homeless animal. If you can’t adopt a pet on International Homeless Animals Day, fostering a cat or dog is the next best thing.

2. Spay or Neuter All Pets

Spaying or neutering animals is also one of the best ways to reduce homeless animal populations, which will otherwise multiply quickly. Cats, for example, begin breeding at just 4 months of age, which triggers a seasonal tide of homeless cats during the warm summer months of kitten season.

If your pets aren’t spayed or neutered, International Homeless Animals Day is an excellent reason to make an appointment with the vet stat. You can also observe IHAD by supporting GreaterGood’s efforts to provide humane traps to shelters practicing trap-neuter-return, which helps control homeless cat populations around the country.

3. Donate to a shelter

Shelters play a critical role in helping homeless animals, but U.S. shelters are also chronically understaffed and funded – especially following a global pandemic that’s thwarted shelter fundraising.

This critical shortfall has left many shelters struggling to buy critical supplies, jeopardizing all the animals in their care. Celebrate International Homeless Animal Days by making a donation to your local shelter or consider making a donation to help us stock busy shelters with emergency supplies.

4. Fund Flights to Freedom

Many homeless animals live in areas where people don’t spay or neuter their pets, causing the local populations of homeless animals to soar. But in other parts of the country, demand for adoption is soaring.

This heartbreaking discrepancy led Greater Good Charities and The Animal Rescue Site to operate monthly Flights to Freedom, which flies adoptable shelter pets from the South — where overcrowded shelters leave homeless pets at risk of euthanasia – to safety on the East coast, where animals are adopted in days. Donate $5 to buy air miles for shelter dogs and cats traveling on our next Flights to Freedom.

Please join us in helping homeless dogs and cats on International Homeless Animals Day!

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog