How to Help Local Shelters During the Season of Giving

With Christmas approaching, we’ve finally gotten to many peoples’ favorite time of year: the season of giving. Traditionally, we give gifts to our loved ones during this holiday season, but we can also be generous in other ways. We’ve covered ways to help local shelters before, but it’s the perfect time to highlight the two most important ways. If you’re wondering how to help local shelters or rescues during the holiday season, try donating or fostering and adopting!

Donate

This may be the most obvious, but it’s also the most important. Running a shelter or a rescue takes a huge financial toll. As we all know, pet care isn’t cheap. So what better way to celebrate the season of giving than to give shelters donations? While you’re out checking of your Christmas shopping list, consider making room for local animal shelters in the budget!

When it comes to donating, you can give money, or you can give items and supplies. Money will likely help cover vet bills as well as administrative costs necessary to keep the shelter open. Funding poses a huge issue to shelters and rescues, so any little bit helps! Luckily, in the internet age, it’s easier than ever to show kindness by supporting businesses you care about. Most shelters allow you the option to go online and donate, saving you a trip to the physical location.

If you’d prefer to stick to the traditions of the season, you may prefer to donate items. This is trickier because many shelters have preferred brands or specific requirements for the things they use. However, as long as you call in beforehand, donating items can be just as helpful as donating money! Here’s a list of generally donatable items to use as inspiration for you Christmas shopping list:

• Unopened food/treats
• Cleaning supplies
• Cat litter
• Bowls
• Toys
• Blankets
• Towels
• Grooming supplies
• Leashes
• Collars
• Heating pads

Adopt or Foster

At this point, children asking for a puppy for Christmas is a well-known cliche. While it’s never right to impulse buy a pet, Christmas may be the perfect time to take the family out to your local shelter or rescue and find a new member of the family! If you’ve been looking into getting a pet, you can celebrate the season of giving by giving a shelter animal a forever home. It’s a win-win-win situation: you get a new pet. The animal gets a new home. The shelter gets more space to take in new animals. That kind of all around positivity is what the spirit of Christmas is all about!

The Christmas season can be hard on the wallet, though. So if you don’t have the means to support an animal full time, fostering can be just as impactful. This way, your child that’s begging for a puppy or kitten can get a taste of the responsibility without the lifetime commitment. Plus, the animal gets to celebrate Christmas in a warm, loving home instead of a potentially overcrowded shelter or rescue.

While it’s not a jolly topic, the fact is that so many adoptable animals are euthanized because shelters don’t have either the space or the funding to care for them. Statistically, Louisiana is one of the worst states in this matter. To lighten the load (and thus reduce the chances of euthanasia), we need to address the roots of the problem. If shelters don’t have enough funding and space, the best ways to help are provide funding and space! Donating and adopting/fostering are solutions to some of the hardest problems that rescues and shelters face.

As animal lovers, the Christmas season gives us an opportunity to help the animals that mean so much to us. Shelters and rescues are vital to the pet trade, so we need to do what we can to support them. Providing the essentials for their care ensures a merry Christmas for shelter animals. Remember to contact your local shelter in advance to see what they need most before donating!

With Christmas approaching, we’ve finally gotten to many peoples’ favorite time of year: the season of giving. Traditionally, we give gifts to our loved ones during this holiday season, but we can also be generous in other ways. We’ve covered ways to help local shelters before, but it’s the perfect time to highlight the two…