Companion Animal Advocates of Bertie offers pet-centered programming to help deter shelter surrenders, animals “put out” or made homeless by owners for a variety of reasons.
We researched why people turn in their companion animals to shelters, and we discovered three broad categories. The majority of people who surrender pets, do so due to reasons that are:
- Transitional: Changes in life circumstances that mean the structure of the family has changed. These can range from moving to a rental home to an owner passing away. However, the most common “transition” occurs as a pet ages.
- Financial: People facing economic hardship sometimes must make excruciating decisions. Pay a mechanic to fix the car to go to work or pay the vet to spay the cat. Or purchase food for the family or kibble for the pet. These are often relatively short-term in nature. But they can also expand into a long-term crisis.
- Behaviorial: The third category is due to negative behavior. Sometimes it is pet behavior. But most often is happens when humans fail to train the pet or teach it poor behaviors like roughplay. In addition, a very dangerous pet behavior is roaming, when their biological drive tells them to go find a mate. Fortunately that behavior is corrected easily via spay or neuter.
We turn these challenges into positives– the pillars that uphold our Three Pillars of Responsible Pet Ownership to help pet owners problem solve instead of getting rid of their companion animals.
How Our Programs Support Each Pillar
We have at least one program to represent each of these pillars. Do we have all the answers to every problem? Of course not. But we carefully thought about what small steps we could take on a community-led, grassroots level to chip away at these problems, a little bit at a time.
We hope you will support these programs–they are made possible by generous people who share their time, talent, and money with the community.
Would You Like to Help Support Our Efforts?
We are grateful for every dollar you can spare, and we assure you that 100% of funds raised go directly to support our programs.
