By Bianca Kapteyn
The history of sheltering organizations in the United States dates back to late 1800s, to the founding of large-scale animal shelters in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. It was a way to handle pets for short periods of time as part of animal control programs –albeit in a shelter system with inadequate or quasi-institutional warehoused settings, perhaps for months at a time.
Present
According to ASPCA stats: 6.5 million companion animals enter the shelter system every year – one out of three pets in the U.S.. Some 1.5 million animals are euthanized. Here’s an up-to-date 2018-2019 article written by Steve Harris of Daily Dog Stuff on Pet Ownership Statistics.
Now
Animal welfare advocate Angela Marcus has created a new approach to pet adoption with her national website Get Your Pet .
It’s an online pet adoption site that helps companion pets go directly from one good home via GetYourPet.com
The online site offers a more humane approach to an already difficult situation for pet parents – those who’ve had to surrender their pets because of circumstances beyond their control.
“Whether it’s landlord issues, relocation or death, whatever the case may-be,” says Marcus. “We’re here to help pet parents be proactive by helping them to keep the pet out of the shelter system.“
Marcus knows firsthand how the animal welfare shelter system operates, having spent six years as the Operations Director for the Pennsylvania SPCA in Philadelphia. “This idea for Get Your Pet.com was born out of that experience.”
“ We work with local animal shelters to potentially relieve them of one-third of the annual intake – allowing them to dedicate their limited resources to strays and abused cases, basically partnering as an resource tool for surrender prevention.”
Get Your Pet is a business-community based website, an online community where people who have to give up a pet directly connects with people who would want to adopt a pet like theirs.
It’s easy to navigate. Pet parents are offered an opportunity to post a profile, photos and a video of their pet for free. Those who are looking to adopt can freely browse up-to-date pet profiles until they find a pet they would want to meet. Then they safely message with the pet’s guardian for a meet-up in a neutral place, say a park. This is in contrast to a shelter setting, where a cacophony of noises, smells and unfamiliar people is the norm.
According to a recently published article, New York City shelters plan to give a drug called trazodone – an anxiety medication to minimize stress – to street dogs and dogs from troubled homes,
The total cost of a legally documented pet adoption through Get Your Pet is $99 and cats are now $49 which is not paid until the adopter actually succeeds in adopting a pet.
Get Your Pet is available across the U.S. and Canada in the future.
A portion of the profits from Get Your Pet will go to benefit local animal shelters.
For more information visit: GetYourPet.com
