Tina Traster, Catnip Nation
April 21, 2020
Julie Posluns, Cat School
April 28, 2020
It is Volunteer Appreciation Week. Thanks so much to all of the volunteers that support animal welfare organizations. Most of us volunteer in many ways and this is the week to take time to celebrate everyone’s efforts—including those of the many folks who are fostering cats and dogs right now.
Going forward, the animal sheltering world may change dramatically. Over 80% of animal shelters have less than 25% of their normal number of animals in their shelters. Foster care programs have expanded and there is a desire to keep that trend going.
We may see smaller physical spaces for housing animals going forward, but more programs out in the community. We may see more organizations partnering or merging with social service organizations that help people and animals at the same time. I know that as volunteers, we all hope our positions will still be there for us as COVID-19 exposure is reduced in our communities. The truth, however, is that we may need to accept that the volunteer job descriptions will have to be re-worked in different ways.
We may need more volunteers to be senior phone pals, to transport food and pets, and to perform education and outreach in schools—and yes, we will need more people trained in trapping community cats!
For those of us who focus exclusively, this is the time to think about getting out in the community and assisting residents with the tools that they need to be able to trap community cats and get them spayed/neutered. The community has become our shelter and community cat sanctuary. We will need resources to help all cats at all levels.
Volunteers will need to be flexible and nimble as the industry changes. Please be patient with organizations as they try to figure things out. Thank you again for your service and for turning your passion for cats into action.
