Every year, thousands of animals are found roaming the streets of India. The number of strays and neglected dogs keeps increasing tenfold, and even with increased animal shelters, not every animal can be saved. Dog shelters barely have the funds to take care of all the expenses and pay for space and facilities to take care of strays.
To top it off, every year, people who cannot afford to take care of their adopted pup, dumb these animals into the shelters. Especially during this pandemic, stray animals are going through drastic distress and shelters are trying their best to help.
If you’re an animal lover seeing the state of animals on the street and you feel bad but you’re unable to help, read on.
How you can help
Despite popular belief, you don’t have to be swimming in a pool of money to help a dog shelter. You can do any one of the below suggestions and see the impact on the life of at least a single animal.
- Adopt- You might have heard the saying, “Adopt don’t shop” plenty of times, and rightly so. Breeding dogs cause many problems in them and opting to get only the best breeds is not very humane. If you love dogs and don’t care about its breed, by adopting a pup you will be able to help both the dog and shelter.
- Donations- Every shelter out there probably has enormous bills to pay on a monthly basis. If you take care of a pet, you know how exorbitant the expenses are. Multiply that over 100 and that’s the kind of expenses shelters have to incur. If you feel like you don’t have a lot of money, try and make any small donation you can as it will definitely help the shelter in ways you don’t know like operational costs, extra medicines, and so on.
- Volunteering- If you don’t have any money and cannot adopt but have a little spare time, you can volunteer at your local shelter on a pro bono basis. You can host events and charge for them, spread awareness about the shelter through social media, and even help rescue strays.
- Donate old toys, bowls, or food- Donating your pet’s old toys, leftover food and bowls can cut down the costs of long-term investments for the animals. You can also donate old rugs or blankets to help keep the animals and strays warm during the winters.
- Foster parent– If you’ve always wanted a pet but could never have one for various reasons; you can always foster a pet for however long you can. For neglected or abandoned pets that can’t easily adapt to the dog shelter, fostering them might be a life-saver. By fostering, you provide them a comfortable space for a while until a new home can be found.
- Help your shelter make changes- The work done by your shelter will always be disturbed by local municipalities, lack of resources and facilities. You can try and incorporate updated methods and equipment by rallying the support of your locality members and even opening crowd-funding sites so your shelter can have a global audience who can donate and help.
If you’re an animal lover and are feeling confident after reading this article, take all the energy you have and put it into helping your local dog shelter. Remember, even if you feel like you can’t help, every tiny effort goes a long way in helping them stay open for longer and aid animals.
