June is Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month, which means it’s the perfect time to add Get Your Pet to your LifeLearn WebDVM website. Here’s why.
Each June marks the height of kitten season, when millions of kittens are born and wind up in animal shelters to join millions of cats already in shelters. To help them find homes and highlight the overcrowding issue, shelters across North America annually participate in the ASPCA’s Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month event, which supports American Humane’s annual Adopt-a-Cat Month event. Both events encourage existing and would-be pet parents to bring home a new feline family member from their local animal shelter, and many people do.
According to the ASPCA, approximately 1.6-million shelter cats are adopted each year in the U.S., up from about 1.3-million adoptions since 2011.
Unfortunately, approximately 3.2-million cats enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide each year, meaning many cats and kittens don’t find new homes. They languish in shelters as more cats pour in until overcrowding and finite resources force shelters to do the last thing they want to do and euthanize cats.
The Humane Society of the United States estimates that of the nearly 1-million cats euthanized in U.S. shelters each year, approximately 80% are healthy and could be adopted into new homes.
Because of the 50/50 odds of kittens and cats being adopted from a shelter, as well as the overall stress and conditions experienced by cats from being in a shelter, many animal health and welfare organizations now echo what the Toronto Humane Society has on its website as advice to people who are thinking of taking cats or kittens to an animal shelter:
“A shelter should be your last resort for placing your animal. Before contacting the Toronto Humane Society, you should attempt to place the animal in another home on your own. Ask friends, family and neighbors and put up flyers in your neighborhood and at your local pet store, pet park and veterinary clinics. Placing your animal in a shelter will be stressful and difficult for your animal and we are eager to avoid this if possible.”
Said more simply, it’s far better for a kitten or cat (or any pet) to go from one home to another than it is to go to a shelter. That’s why LifeLearn partnered with Get Your Pet, an online community of pet lovers that connects potential pet parents with people looking to safely and humanely rehome their pets. Facilitating the whole process with seamless animal guardianship, Get Your Pet helps animals move from one loving home to another.
When you add a Get Your Pet link to your clinic’s WebDVM website, you not only help save more animals from shelters by providing pet owners with the information and means to find a new home for their pets. You strengthen client engagement and brand reputation through clear, visible and accessible alignment with holistic animal health care.
Currently only available to U.S. WebDVM clients as an optional feature to the Standard, Premium, and Exclusive editions of WebDVM, Get Your Pet enables potential pet parents to meet and learn about pets from their owners, who know the pets best. Local veterinarians examine pets at no extra charge as part of adoption, and veterinarians can even get more information about becoming a Get Your Pet Vet by visiting the Get Your Pet website. The entire process allows shelters to focus more of their limited resources caring for strays and abused animals, and more available kennel space at shelters means fewer animals euthanized.
To help more pets find a new home without going to a shelter, contact LifeLearn today about adding Get Your Pet to your WebDVM website.
