(Riverton, WY) – The PAWS for Life Animal Shelter is overflowing with dogs and cats right now, and they are hoping for fosters and volunteers this holiday season.
Adoption might be a great Christmas present idea for someone in your life, but due to the significant amount of returned pets, they’re asking folks to foster instead.
“We are asking that if they are wanting to adopt over Christmas, we’re asking for fosters instead,” explained Brittani Martin, shelter manager. “A lot of people like to get pets strictly for Christmas, and then because, you know, in the joy of the moment it’s a Christmas present and the kids are in love with the Christmas present, but it always doesn’t stay that way. And so we have a lot of turnaround that I’ve noticed that even after a couple of weeks, the Christmas present has died down, kids don’t want to take care of it anymore, they don’t want to play with it anymore. And so then the dog sits at home, or the cat sits at home and so then they’re forced to return the animal, which doesn’t help us because then we’re overfilling again. So we’re asking strictly for fosters, and you can do that by just coming down to the shelter and filling out a foster application. And if you get accepted with that foster application, then we can go from there.”
Fostering can help an animal decompress, she continued. Those from trauma backgrounds tend to feel more comfortable in a home instead of a shelter.
Volunteers are always needed to do things such as help clean kennels, walk dogs, and play with cats. One of the big volunteer days is Christmas morning.
“Christmas morning is a big day that we ask for volunteers so that we allow our staff to have a day off with their family. They work 365 days a year. And so we ask that volunteers come if they don’t have kids at home and they want to spend the morning helping us clean so that they can have that day off. The more volunteers, the better.”
The morning begins at 8 am, and anyone is welcome to help.
Aside from fosters and volunteers, they are always accepting donations, both monetary and food for the animals. They use Purina brand food.
For more ways to help and to learn more about PAWS for Life, click here.
