Make your rescue or foster pet a ‘forever’ friend

(CNN)Fuzzy, furry friends are filling our homes since the lockdowns due to cornoravirus began in early March. Over the last two months, the numbers of people fostering cats and dogs have risen dramatically over the same period last year.”About 40% of all of the shelter population in the country are in foster homes right now, and that represents a current reality of about 60 to 90,000 animals, which is huge,” said Julie Castle, chief executive officer for Best Friends Animal Society, which helped launch the no kill movement in the United States.Those numbers are based on data gathered by 24PetWatch, a pet insurance company that provides a weekly snapshot of over 1,100 animal welfare organizations around the country.Adoptions, while down due to the closing of shelters, may be starting to rise as well, Castle said, perhaps a result of people falling in love with their foster pets and giving them forever homes. In the Best Friends no-kill shelter in Salt Lake City, 46% of foster applicants said they were interested in potentially adopting. If they follow through — and that attitude is replicated across the US and other countries where there’s been an uptick in fostering — it could be a huge win for homeless animals everywhere. But if that doesn’t happen and people begin returning foster pets as they return to work, the impact on shelters already strapped by a lack of funds could be devastating.”It’s going to put a lot of pressure on animal welfare groups and shelters, and they’re going to have to reach out to the community for support,” said Michelle Cole, who is the chief marketing and sales officer at Pethealth Inc., the parent company of 24PetWatch. “This is also the typical fundraising period, and they haven’t been able to do that due to coronavirus,” she added. “So already a lot of them are experiencing more financial strain.”Adoption agencies are sounding the alarm, trying to encourage people to understand the ramifications of returning fostered or adopted pets who may be undergoing some behavior change or separation anxiety as their owners return to work. In the United Kingdom, one of the largest welfare charities, called Dogs Trust, has changed its 30-year-old slogan from “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas” to “A dog is for life, not just for lockdown.””Most of the shelter organizations are asking, ‘Why do you need to relinquish that pet? Can we give you support so that won’t ever be necessary?’ ” Montgomery said. “Animal welfare organizations can be super creative and helpful in trying to solve those problems. We want to keep pets at home.” If you find yourself in need of help with food or medicine for your pet, experts suggested calling a number of animal welfare groups and shelters in your area, as some may be
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