10 Winning Ways to Help Your Local Animal Shelter

To Find out where your local shelter and animal rescue groups are, visit http://www.petfinder.org

1.  See if volunteers are needed. You might get to walk dogs, brush and groom cats and dogs, help keep the kennels clean, feed the animals, help with paperwork in the office, or help with special events like walk-a-thons!

2.  Collect supplies the shelter always needs, such as newspapers, old towels and blankets, dog and cat food and toys, books about animals and their care, pens, pencils, and office supplies, and almost anything else you could think of.

3. Make sure your pets are spayed and neutered  and encourage your family, neighbors and friends to spay and neuter their pets.

4.  When someone you know says they are thinking about getting a pet, tell them about all the wonderful animals available for adoption at your local shelter!

5.  Start a Friends of the Shelter club at your school or in your neighborhood. Everyone working together can do so much more than one person working alone. When things get going, local radio stations, newspapers, and television stations might want to do a story about your club!

6.  See if you can raise funds for the shelter. Plan a car wash, a bake sale, or a raffle (ask local businesses to donate things -- whatever they sell or whatever service they provide, someone will be able to use it!) Offer to walk people’s dogs or pet-sit when they go on vacation and donate the money to help homeless animals.

7.  Start a Tag Awareness Drive in your neighborhood or at your school. Animal shelters spend lots of time and money trying to reunite lost pets with their families. If more cats and dogs wore I.D. tags, things would be a lot better! Learn more about National Tag Day.

8.  See if the shelter knows of elderly or disabled people in your neighborhood who can’t care for their animals as well as they’d like. Ask if they need help with dog-walking or cat litterboxes.

9.  If you are a Girl Scout or Boy Scout, dedicate one or more of your merit badge projects to an animal shelter or rescue group.

10.  See if any of your school projects can be about an animal shelter or rescue group, spaying and neutering, animal cruelty, or pet adoption.