It’s holiday time and your local pet shelter can certainly use a little help. If you’re hoping to give a helping hand to your local shelter, you may be wondering how exactly to help. Here are a few ideas to put your love of animals into action and help out a shelter.
Volunteer
A wonderful way to help your local shelter is to volunteer your time. You may not be able to offer yourself for a regular time slot each and every week, but shelters often have more work to be done than workers to do it. Think about some of the talents you have. Could you create newsletters or fliers? Could you repair animal cages and fences? Could you clean or take dogs for walks? Could you spend time socializing with animals at the shelter? Ask your local shelter about their needs and you might be surprised at what you may have to offer.
Donate Supplies
Shelters always tend to run short on supplies. In fact, cat food, dog food, and cat litter is only the tip of the iceberg for supplies that a shelter really needs in order to function. They often need cleaning supplies, bleach, paper towels, rubber gloves, pet beds, old newspapers for bedding, office supplies, and many other things. Ask your local shelter for a wish list of their needs and see what you can do to meet those needs. You might even go a step further and organize a donation drive to aid the shelter. You can organize a community drive or even a donation drive among your coworkers (make sure you get permission from your employer first).
Spread the Word
Offer to help promote the shelter and spread the word about its needs. This is a great way to help your local shelter if you don’t have a lot of extra time. You can promote and share their Facebook pages and posts and even hang up fliers about the shelter and events.
Raise Awareness
One of the reasons shelters are overrun with unwanted pets is because people don’t have their pets spayed and neutered. Devote a little time to being an advocate and raising awareness about the homeless pet population. Find advocacy groups on Facebook to follow then share their posts. Tell people you know about the importance of taking proper care of their pets and have them spayed and neutered.
Your local animal shelters always have plenty of needs for help. Whether you volunteer your time at the shelter or use some of your time to promote the needs of the shelter, you can certainly help out. Find out the specific needs and see what you can do to help meet those needs during the holidays and all year long.
What other ways can you think of to help a local pet shelter during the holidays?
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