5 Ways To Help Your Local Animal Rescue
Across newspapers and magazines; on the news, radio, and in advertisements; left, right, and center, you’ve probably seen “Donate to Your Local Animal Rescue or Shelter” at least once in your life, but what does that mean?
An animal rescue group or animal rescue organization is dedicated to pet adoption. These groups take unwanted, abandoned, abused, or stray pets and attempt to find suitable homes for them.
Animal Rescues often operate across massive areas with minimum resources, funding, and volunteering, offering temporary housing and care for homeless pets. With more than 6.5 million companion animals ending up in shelters yearly, the time is now to help!
So, with resources and funding for these animal rescues and shelters spread out so thin, what are some ways we can help? Here are 5 Ways you can help your local animal rescue!
Adopt: It may be the most obvious thing to do. By choosing adoption over breeders, you’re not only saving a life, but you’re removing a pet from the shelter you’re adopting from, allowing space for another homeless pet to come into the system to find their forever home. By adopting a pet, you save money for yourself, provide the much-needed funds, rescues, and shelters desperately needed, and you’re helping a cause in the process. With roughly 25% of dogs in shelters being purebred, consider adopting before shopping. You’d be surprised at what breeds of pets you can find if you do a little research, such as searching for breed-specific rescues.
Donate: With limited funding, animal rescues and shelters rely heavily on donations to supply resources, food, shelter, and medical services and care for the pets they house. No amount is too small!
Volunteer: Give back by volunteering your time at your local animal rescue shelter. By volunteering, you will make a world of difference for both the animals and staff. Any bit counts, and ALL animal shelters and rescues need volunteers. Volunteering doesn’t always mean you have to work with the animals. Areas you can volunteer in include office help, education, fundraising, and many more different types of volunteer opportunities.
Use Your Voice: With a lack of funding, causing advertising to be minimal in many cases, shelters rely on volunteers to provide word of mouth, both vocal and electronic, to spread the word. You can use your voice to help local animal shelters by sharing information about pets in their care currently looking for their forever home. Spread the word amongst your friends and family when a rescue is seeking donations and using your voice to help educate the public about animal welfare.
Become a Foster Parent: If adoption isn’t for you, look into fostering a furry friend while they wait to find their forever home. By offering a temporary shelter home, animals allow for more space in the shelter to save more pets and provide your foster friend with a loving family and a warm house in the meantime.
If you want to help out in any way, shape, or form, don’t be afraid to reach out to your local shelter or get vocal in your community.
You are looking to make a difference in a homeless pet’s life. Here are just a few of the fabulous animal shelters and rescues in the Miami area you can help!
- Born Free
- Humane Society of Greater Miami
- Miami Animal Rescue
- Miami Dade Animal Services Pet Adoption & Protection
- The Cat Network
- Paws 4 You
If you have any questions or queries, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Nicole founded Miami Pet Concierge in May 2007 with a mission to provide Miami, Florida’s pet parents with personalized pet care plans based on their pets’ species, age, breed, health, and lifestyle – All while keeping their pets “happy at home.” In addition, offering pet care education to all pet owners to help them become great pet parents.
