by Karon Brandt

Created on: August 04, 2011   Last Updated: August 06, 2011

10 ways to help rescue animals, directly and indirectly.

1. Adopt a pet rather than purchase one. For every dog, cat, bunny, hamster, etc. that you adopt from a rescue group, you make space for another animal to get a second chance for a new home.

2. Foster an animal. Many rescues use foster homes for animals that need extra time before adoption. They can’t simply be stored in pens and placed into adoptive homes without intervention. Some rescued animals require immediate surgery with slow recovery times; some desperately require serious grooming and cleaning up after being in bad conditions; some require training and socialization.  Higher species - like abandoned horses and dogs – often require long-term human involvement - rehabilitation, socialization, and re-training - before going to another home.

Long term but impermanent homes are also needed for dogs (and other pets) of service men and women who are gone for many months, but hope to come back home to their pets. Another need is for temporary homes for pets of women and children in protection-from-abuse shelters who cannot take their animals with them, but hope to get them back someday. Other families in crises – after fires, floods, or tornadoes – also need temporary housing for their pets until the families' lives can get back to normal.

3. Volunteer at a shelter or rescue. Resources are limited at non-profit shelters. Staffers are always overworked and finances are always spread thin. Many shelter managers must euthanize the overflow of unwanted animals just to keep their agencies working. Volunteers can clean up animal areas, walk and feed animals, wash the feed bowls, etc. Many shelters require training before allowing volunteers close interaction with the animals like socialization, grooming, bathing, etc. By lightening the load of the trained staffers, volunteers can save animal lives.

Other volunteers can introduce dogs and cats to their new families in visitation areas. If you can temperament-test or train dogs or teach others how to do it, your local shelter may desperately need your services.

4. Other volunteer efforts. If you can’t get directly involved one-on-one with the animals because of allergies or perhaps because of the emotional attachment to animals with “expiration dates,” you can help with greeting, fund-raising, community outreach, advertising the animals on the shelter's website, and/or writing letters-to-the-editor to inform the

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