The voices of dogs and people made a racket as Paige Russell, the foster manager with Black Dog Animal Rescue in Cheyenne, tries to talk.
” We just had dogs come in from New Mexico yesterday, so we took in a mom and some puppies and then a smaller chihuahua mix and then a little beagle mix,” said Russell.
Black Dog Animal Rescue is the largest animal foster care program in Wyoming, she said.
“During the holidays, people get busier, and fewer fosters are available,” said Russell. “These wonderful dogs end up sitting in kennels for days on end, when what they really need is a warm home and a caring family.”
She said her program has seen a surge in need right now because of the number of dogs that have nowhere to stay over the holidays.
“[Volunteers] might go around to visit other family members. They might leave their house and go on vacations, or they have people coming into their home that aren't there throughout the year. It could range from they're really great with animals to maybe they're not so great with animals,” she said.
Russell said they’re having a hard time finding homes for several large dogs through early January.
“When [volunteers are] looking to take dogs into their homes over the holidays, they tend to look at smaller, more handleable dogs and smaller dogs tend to get adopted a lot faster,” she said.
But Russell said on top of the seasonal challenges, the state’s shelters are also just getting an influx of unwanted pets because Wyomingites are struggling financially.
“Mostly, what animal shelters and rescues are going through right now is that we're seeing a lot of animals come in and a lot of people struggling to keep their animals with them, and that can happen for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they don't have resources. Sometimes they lose jobs. Sometimes they find that they cannot care for their animal. We try to bring grace to all of those situations.”
Russell said all across the state right now, animal shelters are struggling to take care of pets without homes.
“ Even if you just go to your local animal shelter, Humane Society or in some cases animal control, especially in the rural areas, [they] act as that sort of in-between. [You can] always step up and ask to be a foster to those people, right?”
And, she said, if you can’t foster a pet in your home, there’s other ways you can help animal shelters over the holidays.
”Being able to step up and become a foster one is one of the most important things you can do. But the second thing is just to volunteer for shelters like the Cheyenne Animal Shelter,” Russell said. “I know that they have programs where volunteers can come in and walk dogs. And so even if you can't take a dog into your home, volunteering at a local animal shelter or rescue or animal control to see if they need just help getting their dogs out and experiencing some out of the kennel time is really important.”
Russell encourages people to reach out to their local animal shelter to find out more specific ways to fill in the gap during this holiday season.
