As the holidays come to a close, consumers everywhere flood the market with an abundance of returns and exchanges. With gifts of all kinds returning to their shelves, some may wonder what happens to the animals that are infamously gifted throughout the season.
Even though countless commercials flash across TV screens every day, leading us to believe that many animals given as gifts are taken back to spend their lives in shelters, new research has found that this is untrue.
In an interview with the Mother Nature Network, Inga Fricke, the Director of Pet Retention for the Humane Society of the United States, explained the misconception.
“Fortunately, nowadays we have a considerable amount of data that has been collected surrounding this issue, and we know now that’s just not the case — in fact, studies show that animals given as gifts are actually more likely to be kept in their new homes,” Fricke said.
However, that doesn’t help the 7.6 million animals that are in shelters all over America according to the ASPCA.
One way the Wood County Humane Society is helping to find pets like these forever homes is by implementing a new behavioral enrichment program. Behavior and training coordinator April McCurdy works with the animals (mainly the dogs) daily to make them more adoptable and allow them to stay in homes once they are adopted.
The behavioral enrichment program was developed by McCurdy and Outreach Coordinator Tonya Burkett to help the dogs and cats adjust to shelter life and become better behaved. McCurdy said the dogs become especially stir crazy if they are kept in the shelter too long, which leads to them becoming unadoptable.
“The longer they stay here, the worse their behavior becomes, and the worse their behavior becomes the less likely they are to get adopted, McCurdy said.
To combat this, the enrichment program will help keep the minds of the animals active and helps them de-stress. There are various ways that students and community members can get involved with this new program. One way to help can be by making crafts and puzzles to occupy the animals. Students can also help by just simply showing up to play with the animals and walk the dogs throughout the week.
Sign-up sheets can be found on the Wood County Humane Society website; however, volunteer work does require some outside training. The training is free and provided by the Humane Society for anyone interested in volunteering.
The shelter has flexible hours and students can even stop in to see the animals between their classes.
