First Ever Shelter Tour NORTH!
For the first time, we are headed north on our shelter tour!
We have four planned visits to organizations in three states. Our goal is to learn more about northern shelters and rescues.
We hope to discover:
Why and how these organizations pull dogs from southern shelters, including the history, and how the nationwide surge in shelter populations is affecting them.
Best practices that are helping them save lives, including enrichment, community engagement, and how they utilize volunteers/fosters.
How our southern shelter/rescue partners can find transport partners, and the statewide regulations in place for pulling dogs from the south.
How/if transports have changed in light of the overcrowding at shelters nationwide.
What their intake policies are and how they serve their communities.
But as I said on our volunteer call last night, “We don’t know what we don’t know.”
It’s much like our first shelter tour south. This is an exploratory mission, and I believe it will help us be more effective advocates for our shelter/rescue partners, but I really have no idea what we will find, only that we will learn a lot.
If you’d like to follow along, you can find regular updates/images/videos on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. You can find links to those places here.
We appreciate your good wishes for traveling mercies as we embark on a whole new kind of shelter tour.
In case you’re curious, here’s where we are going:
Animal Friends (Pittsburgh, PA)
Animal Farm Foundation (Hudson Valley of New York)
Better Together Dog Rescue (Western Massachusetts)
North Shore Animal League America (Long Island, New York)
One last thing, I have slowly been developing our podcast. It's a new skill for me, so be patient, but it's one more way for us to raise awareness. This past week's episode offers an honest look at what is happening in our shelters and the hard choices we are facing.
There is a real crisis in our animal shelters. We need to count not just the number of animals coming into and out of our shelters, but the ones that are being turned away. Not counting them does not mean they don't exist, or that they aren't suffering. It's time for real change in our shelter system.
#CountALLtheAnimals
Cara
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You can also help raise awareness by following/commenting/sharing our content on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
Did you know we have a podcast? I’m working at getting regular episodes up, including the audio version of the new book, and interviews with shelter heroes we meet. Find the podcast on Spotify and other podcast services.
For more information on any of our projects, to talk about rescue in your neck of the woods, or partner with us, please email cara@WWLDO.org.
For links to everything WWLDO, including volunteer applications, wishlists, and donation options, check out our Linktree.
