PAWS Academy: Animal Shelter Services

May 25, 2020

Written by Madi Cook, PAWS Education Intern

Another Week Of PAWS Academy!

When pets are between homes, animal shelters are critical to their care. What services they provide and why animals stay there are some questions we plan to answer!

What Are Animal Shelters?

Animal shelters are a place where pets can live safely when they have nowhere else to go. Homeless pets, like cats and dogs, will stay at a shelter temporarily while they wait to be adopted and ideally find their forever home. Sometimes, lost pets will be found by or brought to animal shelters where they will hopefully be reunited with their families. An ID tag or microchip makes the process of finding a lost pet’s home tremendously easier. For more tips on how to keep your pet safe, check out our suggestions here.

There are animal shelters operated by the government and by groups of people, both with the goal of helping animals. Animal shelters can also be referred to as a “pound” or an “animal rescue” which may reflect different protocols, but again the goal of assisting homeless pets remains the same. Every year in the United States animal shelters take in around 6,000,000 cats and dogs.

At PAWS, around 4,500 cats and dogs are taken care of each year. When pets end up at an establishment like PAWS, they are given everything necessary to please their needs: food, water, a warm and dry place to rest, toys, and loads of attention and love from employees and volunteers. For instance, the dogs get up to eight walks a day and the cats get plenty of cuddles.

The belief that animal shelters are a sad and lonely place is far from the truth in most cases. It is important to investigate things when you are unsure of what they are and form your own thoughts and opinions. We hope we showed you some reasons why animal shelters are crucial as they help protect the homeless pets of the world.

Homeless Pets

Why are there so many homeless pets? The short answer is that every animal’s circumstance varies.

In some situations, pets are found as strays and their origin remains unknown. Strays can be found by anyone, but animal control officers work to help bring them in so they are safe and can have quality lives.

Other pets may end up at an animal shelter because their family can no longer care for them. There are many reasons why a family may not be able to keep their pet anymore. Sometimes people move into a new place that does not allow pets; develop or discover allergies for the pet; or encounter financial stress and can no longer afford their pet. For more information on average pet cost, check out last week’s episode here. Pets can also be removed from their homes and brought to animal shelters by animal control when they are not receiving adequate care or are in unsafe conditions.

Some pets are pregnant when they come to animal shelters which results in kittens and puppies being born in shelters. Another common reason for pets being in animal shelters is when one shelter has run out of space and must transfer animals to another animal shelter.

The number of pets without homes has increased due to overpopulation. Next week we will discuss the issue of pet overpopulation in more detail which further confirms why animal shelters have such a critical role in society.

This Week’s Activities

We invite you to find out where the closest animal shelter is to you and how you can support them and the animals in their care. Also, there are more activities about animal shelters to discover like calculating how many animals are adopted monthly from a shelter at paws.org/PAWSAcademy.

Continue to Learn With Us!

If you missed last week’s video on the cost of a pet click here to check it out and learn about what you need to consider before adopting. You can also find any of our other videos or activities at paws.org/PAWSAcademy. Tune in next Wednesday at 12 p.m. PT for the tenth PAWS Academy video and blog post on overpopulation and continue to explore how you can make a difference in animals’ lives!


If you have any questions or suggestions you can reach us at [email protected].

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