National Volunteer Week

Did you know April 19-25 is National Volunteer Week? Animal shelters across the nation can always use extra helping hands, but the need has been even more critical recently with the economic climate of the last months, and shelters have been hit especially hard.

One of my favorite sites, Petfinder.com, recently ran a survey and discovered that 84% of animal adoption organizations are reporting pet surrenders because of the economic downturn, foreclosures and/or job losses.

Overcrowding is becoming even more of a problem, with 37% of shelters and rescue groups reporting that the number of people willing to foster (or temporarily care for) an animal has decreased due to the economy. As a result, many of these shelters and rescues are forced to turn away animals, or even euthanize them.

If you find you’ve got some extra time, why not find a local shelter to volunteer at? Petfinder has a comprehensive listing of more than 12,000 shelters nationwide that could use a hand. Volunteers can:

~ Foster homeless pets until they are adopted
~ Volunteer for simple activities such as dog-walking, clean-up, bathing
~ Sponsor a pet in need
~ Donate to the Petfinder.com Foundation
~ And of course – adopt!

[image: flickr]