Shelters For Challenged and Disabled
The various
resources listed below consist of groups who either provide services to protect
animals and groups whose members may also be available to assist people who are
looking for a foster home for their pet. Might look for assistance by people
involved with; Animal Shelters, Humane Societies, Individuals, Pet Sitting
& Exercise, Pet Stores, Prisons, Retirement Communities, Social Agencies,
Training, Veterinarians, Washing & Grooming.
Prisons are
an emerging source of assistance. There are currently programs to train dogs in
programs that have been found to benefit both prisoners and the animals. As
mentioned previously shelters are generally not prepared to provide assistance
directly but they may be a source of local information as are most of the other
groups listed.
Thoughtful and concerned people
are the lifeblood of the Foster Pet Project. People who realize the importance
of a pet and who are willing to help out a friend or even a stranger by
watching that pet in an emergency are the ideal Foster Parents.
People
interested in protecting a particular type of pet have been growing for
sometime. For example, there are groups devoted to finding homes for
greyhounds. Members of these groups may be able to assist in finding a foster
home.
Links will
be added to this page as relationships are developed.
There are a number of programs
in prisons that allow prisoners to train animals that might otherwise be
destroyed. There are well established programs for dogs and horses. These
programs require developing a means to select prisoners who are not cruel to
animals and then teach them to train the animals.
The Foster Pet Project is unique
in that initially only dog who pass the CGC test would be eligible. This would
eliminate the need to train the prisoners but still would require developing
the means to eliminate those who have a history or clear propensity for cruelty
to animals. It is hoped that this simplification will enable easier acceptance
by the prison administration for the Foster Pet Project and in time may lead to
inclusion of training programs. The Foster Pet Project might also introduce
other animals like to have the prison administration consider cats and birds as
well as other species. Anecdotal data would suggest that the presence of
animals and encouragement of prisoners to take responsibility for someone or
something other than themselves results in a safer calmer prison.
Like the prison population the
shelter population may benefit from the inclusion of animals from the Foster
Pet Project. Here to the Foster Pet
Project might also introduce other animals like to have the shelter’s
administration consider cats and birds as well as other species.