Saving Lives, also known as Fostering

Foster care is the most direct way of saving animals' lives. All shelters and rescue groups are extremely limited in the numbers of animals they can save due to space restraints and other resource limitations.

Most of the cats and dogs "euthanized" in our animal shelters are destroyed for simple lack of space and a place to go.  Many, if not most, of these animals are "adoptable" with a little time and safe sanctuary until a permanent home can be found. Unfortunately, "time" and "safe sanctuary" are luxuries our city shelters and rescue groups cannot afford. 

What is Foster Care?

Fostering means temporarily care of an animal in home until the cat or dog can be placed. It is the responsibility of the shelter or rescue group to actively advertise and search for a permanent adoptive home for the fostered pet. Shelters and rescue groups are responsible for any medical care the animal might need. Fosters usually pay for pet food and litter.

http://www.geocities.com/~nyca/foster.html

Foster caregivers take in dogs and cats on a temporary basis until permanent homes can be found. Fosters assist in training and help dogs to overcome any fears or stresses caused by their abandonment or abuse. Most importantly, fosters help find homes by getting the dogs out into the community and introducing them around.

http://www.strayfromtheheart.org/fosters/

Why is Animal Care Foster Rescue so important?
Animal Care & Control (AC&C) is required by law to take in all homeless pets. Because of this, we usually have many more animals than our shelter can hold.  We save foster animals’ lives by placing them into foster homes, and simultaneously create more space at the shelters for adoptions to occur.

AC&C foster animals consist of fully-adoptable animals that have not yet found a permanent home, but lack of space at the shelter places the animal at risk of being euthanized.

Animals that are too young for adoption, sick, elderly, disabled or arrived together and are attached can all benefit from a foster home as these factors decrease their chances of being adopted directly from the shelter. Finally, there are many animals that cannot be placed within a rescue organization, usually because the rescues are full or the animal is not a pure-breed, whose lives would be saved by being placed in a foster home.

What are the goals of Animal Care Foster Rescue?
Our goal is to create a network of dedicated and responsible foster parents to care for foster animal(s) in their own homes until a permanent adoptive home is found for each animal. Foster parenting is rewarding, and also challenging. Our foster parents are willing to bring their foster animal(s) to AC&C adoption events and conduct their own adoption efforts. AC&C will work in conjunction with all foster parents to assist them while they are fostering and to find a good permanent home for their foster animal(s.)

As we generate this network of individuals, our goal is to greatly reduce (and eventually eliminate) euthanasia due to lack of space at the shelters. Likewise, our goal is to exponentially increase the number of AC&C animals that are adopted into permanent homes.

http://www.nycacc.org/foster.htm

DDM December 8, 2008