You can see a lot of dogs and cats on your street. These animals are free to roam outside but face a lot of challenges.
- They are susceptible to accidents and injury.
- Too many strays can lead to gang wars between them and lead to injured animals.
- These animals can also be aggressive to humans leading to increased cases of rabies and diseases.
- Since these animals are not neutered, they will keep increasing in numbers.
To help this situation many shelters take care of these animals by providing shelter, food and water. They also take care of abandoned pets, who unfortunately were left on the streets.
The problem that arises is due to the limited capacity, resources and finances of these shelters. Especially during the Covid Pandemic many shelters did not have the space to help animals and had to regretfully decline new additions.
How can we help? One option is adopting them. Giving them homes will save space for other animals in shelters and you will be providing a lovely home for them. This is a long-term solution.
However, if you feel you cannot commit to the long-term solution, there is another option for you. It is called fostering. Fostering is a system where homeless pets are taken care of by people like us until a permanent home is arranged for them. This has a lot of benefits.
- Like adoption, it saves space for shelters to take in more animals that need help.
- It gives an animal a home to stay in and be taken care of at a more personal scale
- You help an animal adjust to a personal home so they can adjust easily to their permanent home.
- It is short-term and flexible.
- You can use this as a trial phase to see if you are ready to take care of a pet.
- Animals help relieve stress.
- Fostered animals can be easily adopted by you.
- You get to have lots of fun!!
If you can afford to foster, please contact your nearest shelter and foster the animal of your choice. It doesn’t take much time and is not a lengthy procedure. A medical check-up will mostly be done by shelters before you foster them.
If you have fostered an animal but are not able to spare enough time, please contact the shelter and inform them. DO NOT ABANDON THEM. Abandoning the animal causes distress and scars them mentally. The shelter will arrange to counter such situations.
Go ahead! Save a life, who knows you may find your suited pal too.
Author: Soumya Vijayshankar
Soumya is an introvert who becomes an extrovert once the comfort level is reached. She is a singer and dancer by hobby. Every time she hears music, she does either of the two, sometimes even both. She believes in the idea of love and kindness as a leader to peace. She also believes in equality and tries her best to spread awareness on human rights and issues while encouraging new talent. She puts a lot of PJs as a way to entertain her companions and herself.