Our local shelter to close

Our local animal shelter- a private no kill- is closing on oct 31. They cannot seem to keep staff there because they receive no funding other than private donations and can't pay much for the back breaking labor it involves.

I contacted them today and told them I want to help however I can. If they reopen I'll be working there at least part time. But for now I feel like I should be doing something to help them get funding. I'm going to contact my municipal office and see what i can do, maybe start a petition.

I need ideas- if this shelter closes there will be absolutely nowhere for homeless and abandoned animals to go.

Throw all the ideas at me you can- I feel helpless

Talk to your local TV news station - they may be able to do a story to gain some funding/awareness!

Oh no how sad. I wish I was rich I would donate tons money to all the shelters

i agree with Ady...get them some publicity...maybe help them organize a fundraiser to get money....

first of all:
1. you need to advertise a way to donate money. A simple way.
2. get publicity - email your friends and family with their stories, email everyone you know.
3. talk to local authorities - ask for help
4. Go to various Cat and Dogs forum online, advertise, advertise!
5. In your place of work - use the bulletine board to put and add.
6. Put an add on trees in the area, in community centers in the area
7. Organize a bake sale, organize a community yard sale to gther money.
8. Organize a fund raiser - Kareoky night (my spelling is awful, O know), dancing tournament, adoption event.
9. Get the people that work in the shelter to go speak in local school and colleges. Or go yourself.

If I will think of something more, I will write it here...
Good luck!
I know My shelter really needs help as well, so I sympathize... so wish me luck as well! (I hope we both succeed!)

Keep us posted

Those are all wonderful ideas , thank you

Today I made some small progress- I spoke to a lot of people at my work and one of them is going to adopt one of the cats at the shelter and possibly a dog. That still leaves fourteen that need to be adopted by the end of the month. Hopefully the shelter will re-open, but the animals all need to find homes in the next two weeks until a solution is reached financially.

I also spoke to a lady who is involved with our town council and she gave me four different numbers to call to ask about funding. It involves getting together with the Director of the shelter and coming up with a formal proposal for funding. I'm hoping its possible to get Provincial help on this.

I am a bit afraid to put up ads since its so close to Halloween- people can be sickos and I'd hate to see one of the animals end up in the wrong hands. I'd think that a weirdo wouldn't pay to adopt a cat or dog he/she wanted to hurt...

By the way, the local newspaper has taken up the cause and put the story on the front page of the paper this week. Hoepfully that will draw people out to not only adopt an animal, but to donate as well.


Keep the ideas flowing!!!

Publicity is the way to go! I agree!

that is so sad, those poor little babies, i agree go to the public, go to merchents maybe you could work something out with them funds for advertising, go to the radio stations get the word out, that will help and god bless you for helping this situation.....

Our shelter almost had to close . They place a big thing in the newspaper here and got so many donation that they are still to this day open . Even though it is a kill shelter but many animals still get a forever home . I wish you all the luck in the world for your shelter . I also agree go public , that's the best change you have .

Maybe your local grocery store or convenient store will put jars on the counters with an explanation written on them for people to put spare change in as they check out.

Keep us posted on how it goes.
Another thing you can do: go to Animal-supply stores, see if they can donate money or food (and save the shelter money). Maybe they can their customers about the shelter.

How sad

I read an article in the paper today how practically all of the no-kill shelters in Israel are bankrupt. We have practically no government support and donations are hardly coming in anymore because of the depression and people being occupied with security issues. I did know about the CWSI shelter hovering on the brink of closure, but looks like the 3 major non-kill animal shelters are all about to do down within weeks or months The only shelter that does well is the heartless super-kill shelter of the Tel Aviv SPCA

The business I work for is going to donate cat litter and food if the shelter re-opens, so thats a small start. Theres so much to be done, it seems overwhelming, but I have to do what I can. When I saw the photo in the newspaper of cages full of cats and dogs who need help- I just felt in my heart it was time to step up to the plate and do something.

Hang on in there Mellisa. Over here some of our bigger food stores have a barrel that customers can donate pet food, litter etc for all the animals at the RSPCA shelters in their location. I have also seen them for the Cats Protection League. They get all sorts of stuff for rabits and dogs as well. I know its not a fund raiser but if the shelter does re open a lot of money can be saved by donations of this sort.
What about posters in the local vets office. The receptionists usually know who to contact for funds as well (ours is extremely knowlegable about which business can be relied upon for a small hand out in a good course)
Good luck.

Fundraising is the hardest part of rescue work. Folks that get involved are better at GIVING than asking for help to RECEIVE. I'm looking at fundraising ideas for our Humane society and here are some ideas that I've come across:

- Ask your local schools to put in a money jar in classrooms. Hold a contest for the classroom that raises the most money and treat the winning team to an ice cream social.

- Contact local boys or girls clubs (boy scouts or girl scouts in the US) and implement programs that will help them obtain badges for their efforts.

- Look for "affiliate" programs at grocery and pet stores to see if they will donate a portion of their sales to your cause.

- With Christmas coming, make a tree with ornaments containing donation amounts. Place these in vet offices, banks, and other office buildings.

- If your local mall has fountains, ask them to donate the change from the fountains.

- Ask your grocery store if you can bag groceries for tips. Also ask them to put in a collection jar by their checkout registers. Making collection jars could be a good project to boys/girls clubs.

- Some mastercard programs will donate a percentage of their sales to rescue organizations.

- Photo contest - have folks send in pictures and have the voting done in a public place like a mall. The most money collected for a photo wins the contest.

- Ask restaurants to designate a day to donate 10% of their proceeds to your organization.

- Business sponsorships: ask local businesses to donate a fixed portion per month to your org. Make a flyer with their business and hang it in the shelter for advertisement.

- Yard sales: collect unused stuff and hold a yard sale.

Just some ideas off the top of my head. Hope this helps!

my local shelter was set to close, but they put up one heck of a fight, it was all over the evening news and then miraculously they got some funding and changed their name--now there are TWO shelters in my town.

I know at my local newpaper office there is a "newsworthy" box that people can type up a story and drop it off. Usually non-profs will get in no matter what. Also, at my newspaper they have free advertising for non-profs--It's not as great as the paid ones, but it's free.

My local news station just did a piece on a shelter being overcrowded, so I'm pretty sure if you contact someone from your local TV news they can atleast get a blurb on.

Believe it or not, a lot of people have money that they are willing to give, but are so busy that they will never hear of a shelter closing.

A lot of highschool and college students have to do XX hours of volunteer work, and these kids often go to their teachers or whatever for ideas, so why not send some information??

And yes you can call businesses, I have often fielded phone calls from people asking for donations when I worked the phone lines at work, and my managers always gave atleast SOMETHING.


I soo know that this is able to be saved. Don't give up!!

I think the biggest thing is getting the word out. If there is anyway to even get flyers together & go to a mall & put them on cars. I would especialy mention they will be closing thier doors unless they can get more donations & assitance.I know our shelter has recieve a lot of help for the locat PetCo. I know there is some contraversy over PetCo, but they have done bake sales for us & they did a round up day where people would up their total to an even amount & that money came right to us. See if you can put donation barrels in locals stores for people to put food & litter in. I don't know if anyone said this or how much it costs, but could they put the animals on pet finder? I know that's how I found the shelter I volenteer at. If there are Universities in the area see if you can get differnt student associations involved. Another thing I've heard of is that Girl & Boy scout troops some times look for ways to help in their communities. Those are it for ideas off the top of my head, but I want to commend you for being so willing to help & having the drive to do what it takes.

A friend and I have been working very hard at getting the last of these kitties adopted out- thats the pressing matter right now. The shelter re-opening is secondary to the kitties who need to find homes in less than two weeks or face euthanization.

On a positive note, there are only 8 out of 15 kitties left to go. The friend who is helping me adopted a little black poly kitty today. Since we both work at a store called 'Wilson's' she named him Wilson Hes adorable, and very lucky. We work with the public , so the word is getting out about the kitties.

I fear one of the dogs may not be so lucky Hes a 2 year old Dalmation who is extremely agressive to other dogs as well as cats. I sure hope the right person comes along for him

Btw- my friend and I have been writing down all your ideas, so that when the crunch for adopting these animals out has passed we can concentrate on getting the shelter re-opened. Thanks again!! :rainbow:

I'm just curious, How many still need homes?

As far as I know, 8 kitties and 2 dogs. I'm going to contact the shelter tomorrow and see how they are doing. Our community is really pretty generous, and I haven't much doubt the animals will all find homes. A lot of people are talking about it, so the awareness is there.