Some shelters around your community are overwhelmed with pets and need a helping hand, especially during the holiday season.

Volunteer with Best Friends Animal Society (BFAS) and save a life this upcoming holiday break.

Best Friends Animal Society

Pioneered in 1984, BFAS got its start in southern Utah with a mission to save lives. Since then, they have grown with locations sprouting nationwide, including in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The lifesaving center in SLC takes in 2,500 pets every year. In doing so, the shelter is working to achieve its goal of No-Kill 2025.

The shelter defines this initiative on its website.

“For a shelter to achieve what we consider no-kill, 90% of the cats and dogs coming into the shelter must be saved.”

This is where you come into the picture. 

“Our goal is to help every shelter in every community reach No-Kill-2025 and this is a really big goal, and we need everybody’s help to do it. We don’t do this alone, and we could never do this alone,” Patrick Theobald, community programs manager at Best Friends Animal Society said.

The shelter makes volunteering easy and beginner friendly. We must act to assist the shelter in achieving No-Kill-2025.

How to Get Involved

Join the BFAS foster program.

This initiative is a flexible, short-term and low-commitment option to take pets into your home and away from the stressful bustles of the shelter.

It is accessible and hassle-free to foster.

The shelter even provides all the necessary training and resources to care for the pet in your home.

You choose the amount of time you can foster, which ranges from one night, a weekend or even several months.

Controlling the schedule of your volunteer opportunity means your leisure time can also serve as a meaningful contribution to your community. 

“Once an animal arrives in our program, we will give them a quick intake exam, medical checkup, vaccines and make sure everything is going well with them. And then we’ll post them on our cluster website… and volunteers in our community who have signed up as foster caregivers … check out that board and see what animals are available and see who needs a home and who they can help,” Theoblad said. “Then once we have a foster caregiver lined up, we’ll have them come in, give them all the supplies they need, hand off the animals, and just take them home and give them all the love, care and attention that they deserve.” 

The BFAS staff is helpful, informative and encouraging. They are a phone call away with any pet emergency and will assist with questions or restocking your foster supplies from the lifesaving center. You have the power to make a difference for a homeless pet with this program’s resources.

Bring Home Some Magic

Fostering during the holidays is a great way to get involved with the program.

U students staying in Salt Lake over the holidays should foster once classes are out of session. 

“Coming up for Thanksgiving and Christmas we like to do … Bring Magic Home for the Holidays foster events, where we set up a short-term foster event to get more new people to come in and just take an animal home for three days,” Theoblad said. “You know, take them from Wednesday through Saturday over Thanksgiving, so that way they can be in a home for the holiday, and then you can bring them back after those three days. And then we’ll have a big adoption event and try to get them all adopted.”

Many say that the holidays are too busy to take on a volunteer opportunity.

But it is especially flexible if you choose to care for an adult cat or even independent kittens.

As long as you are providing a safe environment with food, water and love then you are free to continue your everyday life.

“Having them in a home, even if they’re home alone in a kennel for most of the day and then spend time with people when they’re available … that’s better than being here in a shelter where they just don’t get any one-on-one time or very little one-on-one time at all,” Theoblad said.

Why it Matters

We must help our community’s shelters. It is the only way to achieve No-Kill 2025.

If you are local to Salt Lake City or staying close by during the holiday break, it’s a great time to volunteer.

When asked about the impact that fostering has, Theobald said, “Having them spend one-on-one time with a foster caregiver, it helps them relax, destress and also allows us to learn more about them, so that we can place them in an adoptive home more effectively.”

It’s a busy time of year. But fostering is great to do with family and friends. It’s a great way to connect.

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@shannonreily05