Local animal shelters in need of fosters

0
11

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – As hurricane relief efforts continue in the south, shelters across Wisconsin are getting animals affected by the hurricane, including the Eau Claire Community Humane Association.
On Wednesday, ECCHA picked up six dogs from the south and these dogs are coming at a time when shelters in our area are reaching capacity. Many animals in the Chippewa Valley are waiting for their new home.
“We continue to be very full on animals. This time of year, adoptions tend to go down a little bit just because people are going back to work or going back to school,” Addie Erdmann, the marketing and development director of ECCHA, said. “We still keep taking them in and we are always going to be here for them no matter what our capacity is.”
Sam Wojcik, the shelter manager at the Chippewa Humane Association shared a similar situation.
“For dogs, we’re almost at capacity. Generally, we have around 25-23 dogs in the building. Right now, we have 31,” Wojcik said. “Cats, we are also reaching capacity. We’re getting strays in every day, dogs and cats.”
One major way to help is by adopting an animal, but if you are someone who is not in the best place to adopt, there are different ways to help. One way is through fostering.
“The highest need for fosters tends to be cats and dogs, but we also have rabbits that would love to go into a foster home,” Erdmann said. “We’ll get small animals like hamsters that are a perfect fit for a foster home.”
Fostering isn’t just an opportunity to get animals out of the shelter, it also helps staff learn more about each pet.
“Maybe we have a dog here and we say, ‘yeah, it doesn’t really seem to be good with other dogs. It doesn’t really seem to like men, doesn’t like this,’” Erdman said. “Then you get them into a foster home where their stress levels come down and they’re completely different dogs.”
“If they can even go to foster for a little vacation where they’re gone for a couple of hours, it gives the dog a break from the shelter where they can calm down and just kind of reset,” Wojcik said. “Then we learn more about the dog so we can put more in their bio.”
So whether taking a pet home for a few hours, or for good, you can help foster a fresh start for one of the many animals looking for one. Both the Chippewa Humane Association and the Eau Claire Community Humane Association are looking for fosters ranging from just a few hours to a weekend or longer.
More information on fostering for ECCHA can be found HERE.
More information on fostering for the Chippewa Humane Association can be found HERE.
Copyright 2024 WEAU. All rights reserved.

web-interns@dakdan.com

zoo ads