National Foster a Pet Month is observed every year in June. This month is dedicated to pet fostering across the country in order to share information and to raise awareness about the benefits of fostering animals.
Fostering involves taking care of pets until they’re ready to be adopted and is a temporary arrangement. However, it involves work that people don’t have insufficient information about. Many avoid fostering because they don’t know how, or jump into it without having the right information, both of which don’t help the thousands of homeless animals in the country.
History of National Foster a Pet Month
National Foster a Pet Month is observed every year in June. This month is observed around the country by people who foster animals in order to educate the public about what it takes to foster and how they can begin the process.
Fostering offers animals in need a temporary home to experience the love and care they need. Fostering may include providing medication and socialization opportunities to animals in addition to food and shelter. Foster homes play an important role in facilitating adoption by preparing pet animals for adoption in many different ways.
Foster homes are a space for abandoned or feral animals to be introduced to life with humans. Fostering is a rewarding experience for most people who are able to take pride in nurturing a hungry frightened animal into a well-groomed, healthy animal who can be adopted into a family that can care for the animal for the rest of its life.
Fostering is important as it is an alternative to the animal being sent to a shelter, which is already at capacity. The majority of shelters also put down or euthanize the animals in their care due to a lack of space. Often, animals are put down despite being perfectly healthy and adoptable because the shelter needs space and the animal hasn’t been adopted fast enough.
Fostering ensures that these animals have a temporary home and don’t need to be adopted immediately. Fostering a pet also allows people time to find the appropriate home that will suit the animal and its specific needs. Most fosters keep the animal as long as it takes to find a home, which is a much better alternative to putting them down.
National Foster a Pet Month timeline
Animal shelters are established for stray animals but they are unclean spaces rather than proper shelters.
Animal shelters begin active spaying and neutering activities, but continue to kill animals at alarming rates.
Almost all animals older than three to four months are routinely euthanized to prevent overcrowding at shelters.
Animal shelters with strict no-kill policies come into being, which keep animals as long as they need to until a home is found.
National Foster a Pet Month FAQs
Do you need a license to foster animals?
Regulations vary from state to state but most require fosters to have permits to foster long-term.
Is fostering a dog free?
While policies vary from shelter to shelter, most often, sheltering is free.
How long do you foster a dog?
You can foster a dog from one day to several months.
How to Observe National Foster a Pet Month
Foster a pet this month
A great way of showing your support during this month is to foster a pet. Head over to your nearest animal shelter and take on the animal or animals that you can.
Support no-kill shelters
Support no-kill shelters by sharing their adoptable pet information. You can also donate money to help them with their expenses.
Talk to people about fostering
Share information and build a data bank about fostering animals. Spread the information among people who want to adopt as well so they know where to look.
5 Important Facts About Pet Fostering
There were a lot of barriers
Fosters used to have to undergo training as well as home checks before being allowed to foster.
Fostering drastically improved the save rate
Animals saved in shelters rose from 75% to 90% when pet fostering was introduced.
You can foster short-term
Fostering pets doesn’t have to be long-term, it can be as simple as taking an animal in for the night.
Fostering increases the chances of adoption
Fostering animals can improve the chances of them being adopted as it allows adopters to see the animal in a home setting.
Fostering improves animal behavior
Most badly-behaved animals in shelters suffer from kennel stress, which is easily remedied by fostering.
Why National Foster a Pet Month is Important
We want to prevent euthanization
It is cruel and heartbreaking to put perfectly healthy animals down. We want to help these animals live long and happy lives.
We want to inform people
More people would foster if they knew how to. We want to share information with people so they know how they can proceed.
We want to support shelters
Animal shelters do an incredible job of caring for animals. We want to do our part to help them find homes for these animals.
National Foster a Pet Month dates
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | June 1 | Sunday |
| 2026 | June 1 | Monday |
| 2027 | June 1 | Tuesday |
| 2028 | June 1 | Thursday |
| 2029 | June 1 | Friday |
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