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Kristin Newton

Senior Seminar

Mrs. Tracy Puffer

03 April 2018

Rescuing, Fostering, Therapeutic. Pets Steal Our Hearts.

What comes to mind when you think of animals? Do you think of your furry family

members? So do I, but I also think about those furry friends that don’t have families, the ones

without a warm bed at night, food in their bellies, and human companions to care for them. There

are millions of homeless pets in this world, but there are many things we can do to help prevent

this.

First plan of action: adopt. People these days spend much more money than they have to

when they decide to pay a breeder. Why spend up to $900 or more on a purebred puppy when

you can get one for $50, or at the most $200? Some breeders turn into so called “puppy mills,”

an establishment that breeds puppies for sale, typically on intensive conditions inhumane with

many momma dogs breeding at a time. What happens when not every puppy gets a home?

“Approximately 6.5 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every

year. Of those, approximately 3.3 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats,” states the ASPCA.

Rescuing and adopting are the number one way to avoid having so many animals left without

homes. The average home spends hundreds and thousands of dollars on their pets through

veterinary care. When you adopt and rescue, that pet is guaranteed to have had all its vaccines up

to date, spayed/neutered, and most likely clean and bathed and as healthy as can be. Imagine
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saving all those costs and saving a life in the process! It's a win-win opportunity for both you and

the animal. The Humane Society of the United States reports that “each year, 2.7 million

adoptable dogs and cats are euthanized in the United States, simply because too many pets come

into shelters and too few people consider adoption when looking for a pet.” You can be a part of

a movement to decrease that number, simply by stopping by a shelter and picking out a forever

companion that will love you unconditionally.

Some of you may be contemplating by now that there are many benefits to adoption. The

golden reason, as said before, is you are saving a life. You get the benefit of making a difference

and taking more animals out of shelters so others in need can have that opening spot to be

helped. In addition you will get a great animal. A pet will instantly want to open up and receive

love they have longed for for way too long, and give love that they have been containing and

waiting to release to the right person that they trust to care for them. When choosing a pet, you

get to pick the animal’s age. If you are wanting to have the puppy experience and train the pup

to be everything you wanted and more, you can! Or, if you want an older mellow best friend that

is already trained and well behaved, you can have that too!

When adopting you need to know the difference between a rescue and a shelter: yes they

are two different things! A rescue by definition is completely run by volunteers. They fundraise

and receive donations to fund any expenses; however, they regularly have almost none because

almost all rescues are run from individual’s homes, and many of the pets rescued go straight to

foster homes so they do not need the space for an abundance of kennels. In contrast, a shelter is

an organization that rescues mainly community pets and is usually run and funded by the

government. Shelters have a physical location instead of a person's home, a place where the pets
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are held in a kennel environment. Typically some shelters will have a on-scene veterinarian for

basic health care. So, when you decide you want to adopt now you will have some background

on the facilities your pet will be coming from ​(Animal Shelter Vs. Rescue).

Another way you can make a difference in the lives of pets in need is fostering. Much

like human fostering, you are generally taking a pet into your own home to care for as if it was

your own until it gets its forever home, or, maybe its forever home is yours if you become a so

called “foster fail” and fall so in love with the animal you can’t imagine him going anywhere

else. Fostering is a way to free up space in rescues/shelters in order to place more pets in need.

These furry friends of ours become part of our families: we train them if they need it in order to

be the best pet they can be for their future forever home, we love them to replace all the love

they have been neglected from since they have been in the system, and most importantly we care

for them the best we can. I recently interviewed a current foster parent, Mrs. Krystle Blakeney, a

veterinary technician at a local veterinary clinic, and when asked why she chose to foster this

was her response:

What led me to be a foster parent was being in the veterinary profession. I see the

suffering, I see the over population and I want to help and make a difference.

Fostering makes me feel like I am making a difference and speaking for animals

that don’t have a voice. I feel good giving them a soft bed to lay on, K9 and kid

friends to be around and food in their bellies. If they weren’t in a foster home they

would be suffering in who knows what conditions without any care.

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Some people are hesitant to foster for a couple of reasons. The most common is they feel

it is unfair to take a animal in, form a bond, and then have it leave to another home. Although

this may seem unfair, it truly isn’t. Foster homes can be the lifesaving bridge in an

animal’s life. It teaches them that there are kind people in the world. There is no shortage of

animals that need the preparation. Much like adopting, fostering is a great way to save loads of

money and still have a pet! Foster pets come from the rescues and shelters mentioned before so

they will be all caught up on veterinary care. In addition, most rescues/shelters provide any

needed materials. This includes, food, bowls, litter, toys, information, crates, and any vet care

after fostering takes place.

Dogs help us in many ways, just like how we help them. One example when this takes

place are comfort dogs, also known as therapy dogs. These are different than service dogs.

service dogs are meant for one individual handler, where’s therapy dogs are meant for public

places like hospitals, nursing homes, schools, or any other high stress place. Therapy dogs began

in 1976 when a nurse noticed her patients benefiting when a co-worker brought his golden

retriever to work, she then started a program to train therapy dogs and the demand has grown

ever since (“Therapy Dogs”).

There have been many researches on how animals, dogs in particular, affect humans.

You always hear the saying “Mans best friend” and I could never agree more. Unlike other

species, dogs have co-evolved with humans for so many years they are able to pick up cues of

human emotions. One thing my dogs always do is when they notice I am sad or upset they

instantly come to my side and never leave until they feel I am better, and when I cry they lay

their head on me and cuddle me that much more than usual and just comfort me till I am content.
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Dogs are known for making eye contact, and pick up on small things like where you point your

finger. Much like physical gestures, there is communication. Many people talk to their dogs. I

am too guilty of this! Talking to our pets help us cope with situations or feelings. John

Ensminger in his book about dogs in American society states:

We also want to get their attention, ask them for information, reassure them, describe

what we are going to do, and indicate what is happening. People “talk to dogs for many

of the same reasons they talk to infants: because they want to influence their behavior,

because the communicative recipient(dog or infant) is so responsive to their activities,

and because talking to the recipient gives them the feeling of effective communication

and control”

Because dogs are so companionable with humans they make perfect animals for many

services like therapy dogs. In a recent article about making comfort dogs an everyday occurrence

in public schools, where Jeff Sindler head of Burgundy school in Virginia expresses his thoughts

on comfort dogs such as one of their very own Cameron a black lab, he states, “‘They don’t care

if you’re good at basketball, or a great reader, or popular...They just want to be loved—equal

opportunity.’ Cameron and the other dogs on campus—always on a leash and with their

owner—go a long way toward improving students’ social and emotional well-being, he said:

They reduce tension and soothe anxiety, and elicit happy feelings from students,” such as one of

many, their own Cameron a black lab. As of 2016 the Department of Education started a The

Comfort Dog Pilot Program which put comfort dogs in seven New York schools; this program

expanded in 2017 to 42 schools, these schools include elementaries, middle schools, and high

schools. There are a few steps to become a therapy dog, these include according to Janet Myers,
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who wrote a book about creating a therapy dog: ”leadership approval, therapy dog certification,

therapy dog health records turned into Human Resources, and one very large and fluffy, freshly

bathed therapy dog.”

Because of my interest in the impact of comfort dogs, I have based my senior exit project

on training a soon to be comfort/emotional support dog here at my high school. I chose to use a

former rescue dog named Charlie, a one and a half year old black lab beagle mix pup full of love

and possibilities. One day a week he follows me to all of my classes or spend forty five minutes

with me and his owner training him with basic obedience tasks to help him for a possible

upcoming certification class. He comes on the day that I have Art and English, both calmer

setting classes to get him used to being around larger groups of students. I am starting out one

day a week so we do not stress Charlie out with too many crowds of people he on a regular basis

is not familiar with. My intent is that with working with Charlie little by little we can get a better

idea to see if he will be suitable for our school.

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Bibliography:

“A Beginner's Guide to Comfort Dogs.” ​A Beginner's Guide to Comfort Dogs | FEMA.gov​,

www.fema.gov/blog/2016-03-22/beginners-guide-comfort-dogs​.

“Animal Shelter Vs. Rescue | Pets Plus Us.” ​Pet Insurance by Pets Plus Us​, 16 Nov. 2014,

www.petsplusus.com/pet-information/lifestyle/whats-difference-between-animal-shelter-

and-animal-rescue​.

Ensminger, John J. ​"Service and Therapy Dogs in American Society: Science, Law and the

Evolution of Canine Caregivers"​. 2010.

Greenwood, Arin. “16 Reasons Why Fostering A Shelter Pet Is Basically The Best Thing In The

World.” ​The Huffington Post​, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 24 Feb. 2015,

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/23/foster-shelter-pet_n_6720804.html​.

Hogan, Catherine, et al. “What Is Pet Fostering?” ​Pets for Patriots​, 22 June 2016,

petsforpatriots.org/what-is-pet-fostering/.
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“Krystle Blakeney.” 18 Dec. 2017.

“Making Comfort Dogs an Everyday Part of School.” ​KQED​, 26 Feb. 2018,

www.kqed.org/mindshift/50580/making-comfort-dogs-an-everyday-part-of-school​.

Myers, Janet. ​The Visit: Healing Moments in Pet Therapy​. AuthorHouse, 2011.

“Pet Fostering.” ​Best Friends Animal Society​, 1 Feb. 2016,

bestfriends.org/resources/pet-fostering.

“Pet Statistics.” ​ASPCA​,

www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics​.

“Temporary Home: The Pros and Cons of Fostering Pets in College.” ​Study Breaks​, 10 Feb.
2017,
studybreaks.com/college/fostering-pets/.

“Therapy Dog.” ​Wikipedia​, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Mar. 2018,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapy_dog.

“Top Reasons to Adopt a Pet.” ​The Humane Society of the United States​,
www.humanesociety.org/issues/adopt/tips/top_reasons_adopt.html​.
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