AnimalBeat II: Fostering programs may solve animal shelter problems

Alley Cat Allies pic

Ten years ago, a document published by the Assn. of Shelter Veterinarians alerted readers to the horrible conditions in many animal shelters. “There is a . . . long list of stressors for animals entering shelters,” it began, also making the point that “Poor cat housing is one of the greatest shortcomings observed in shelters and has a substantially negative impact on both health and well-being.”

Much of the (nearly 60-page) “Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters” provided detailed directions for how shelters should be set up to best serve the animals housed in those facilities. (Since then, I’ve heard of just one US shelter that has met all the standards of care – which may be a reason why the 2010 “Guidelines” have not been updated!)

One answer to the need for vast improvement in animal shelters is a fostering program that would greatly lessen – if not eventually obviate – the need for them. And the good news is that such programs are starting to happen.

Just think about homeless animals going to . . . homes (!), instead of shelters. In real homes, these animals, already stressed and possibly in need of training as well as loving, could gain skills, confidence and comfort. (I never met a shelter rep who could offer those incentives.)

Around the country, groups are trying out different versions of moving the shelter to the community -- fostering instead of sheltering animals. It’s a seductive idea, but not easily implemented on a large scale. Just consider, for instance, recruiting and monitoring volunteer fosters, and then overseeing possible adoptions of those animals.

But now, lacking such a “real world” foster program for most shelter animals, numbers of them will be euthanized because they could not adapt to being there and acted out largely because they were in an “unreal world.”

“How far can fostering go?” an article in the Fall 2019 issue of Animal Sheltering Magazine, details all this and much more. If feasible on a grand scale, it’s very appealing.

https://www.animalsheltering.org/magazine/articles/how-far-can-fostering-go

Possible pet upset

It’s a great thing to foster or adopt a shelter animal during this isolation period and shelter in place together. You have time to become acquainted, to play and walk together, to train . . . to bring home an animal in need and feel less lonely yourself.

But the big issue bound to arise when things open up again is weaning your new family member from you and your 24/7 presence at home. As you return to work or start job-hunting, you’ll seem to suddenly disappear. How will your pet deal with that?

Ease that trauma by gradually conditioning your new companion to your absence ahead of time. Go out on errands that gradually become longer, even if you just drive to a nearby park and read or phone-chat for a while. Noiselessly secrete yourself in your basement for a block of time and, as possible, take occasional day trips.

Plan now for how to get your new pet used to your being out as well as being home.

Meat-eaters’ revolt

Seeing a column about the end of meat, in a time when merely thinking of “wet market” or “eating bats” or “species-jumping viruses” should suffice to promote plant-based foods, I read it appreciatively and assumed others would too.

Definitely not! Of the thousands of reader comments, many early ones were negative, defiant, angry. I was stunned . . . till I recalled that even now, the city of Wuhan, China where the current pandemic began, has banned only some wild animals. And holiday beach-goers ignored social distancing advice.

So, why was I surprised that readers fought the writer’s argument -- unarguable, I’d thought -- against meat-eating? I could become a misanthrope.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/opinion/coronavirus-meat-vegetarianism.html?te=1&nl=opinion-today&emc=edit_ty_20200525

Flashback: Trenton rescue kittens at St. Hubert's