{"id":3763,"date":"2020-04-19T10:10:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T17:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/?p=3763"},"modified":"2022-05-07T17:05:52","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T00:05:52","slug":"how-to-help-animals-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/how-to-help-animals-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Be A Good Neighbor To Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Even though access to spay\/neuter services has been disrupted due to the pandemic, there are still things all of us can do to help animals until veterinarians and clinics can fully reopen again.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Be a good neighbor<\/strong><br \/>\nThe shortage of spay\/neuter and shelter services makes overpopulation and the tragedy of unwanted litters all the more evident and obvious to the community during this time. But there are a few things you can doin your neighborhood to help prevent the suffering of animals.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 If someone is moving away from your neighborhood, ask them if they are taking their pets. Abandonment is a crime, and while many shelters and rescues are unable to take in as many animals as usual at this time, there are still options. If your neighbors are unable to take their pets with them, find out how you can help prevent an animal ending up on the streets, whether calling around to shelters or offering to foster until a space becomes available at a shelter.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 If you have neighbors with free-roaming cats, ask if they\u2019ve been fixed. Any outdoor roaming cat (or dog) should be fixed, or kept strictly indoors. (Remember that kittens begin breeding at only 16 weeks of age!) Encourage your neighbors to keep all unaltered pets indoors until they can visit a clinic or veterinarian.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3764\" src=\"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/evan-clark-dpn6K9e1vzY-unsplash-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Become a foster family<\/strong><br \/>\nWith limited staff and volunteers currently working at shelters, fostering an animal is a great way to help ease the burden on short-staffed shelters. It\u2019s also a wonderful way to help socialize animals to help them become more adoptable.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Contact local shelters and ask about their foster program. They will give you all the support and supplies you need, whether it\u2019s caring for a litter of kittens or giving a dog a break from the stress of life in a kennel. Also, by helping to free up space in a shelter, the shelter will be better able to help take in animals who are strays or owner surrenders.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Take in stray or feral cats from your community, if you can. Stray cats live short, difficult lives, but if they are friendly and adoptable, you can bring them in and either make them part of your home, rehome them, or take them to the shelter for a chance at a better life. And if you see unowned kittens, bring them inside if you possibly can. Feral kittens can be tamed and made adoptable if they are caught and handled by the time they are 8 to 10 weeks old. And don\u2019t forget that their mom needs to be fixed; if she&#8217;s not friendly and catchable, keep track of her and <a href=\"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/community-cats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">call the SNYP clinic when it reopens<\/a> to find out how to trap her and get her spayed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3765\" src=\"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/jose-antonio-gallego-vazquez-xJlK0J6GgIE-unsplash-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Take care of ferals<\/strong><br \/>\nThe most important thing to do for feral cats is to get them fixed \u2014 and this begins with feeding them and building trust. Feed feral cats at the same time of day every day, with same bowl in the same place. Make a food noise to call them that they will learn to associate with dinner time. With repetition and consistency, soon they will be waiting for you on time every day \u2014 and this is step one to trapping the kitties for spay\/neuter, the most important thing you can possibly do for them. If you start now, you\u2019ll be ready to <a href=\"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/community-cats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">call SNYP when the clinic opens<\/a> and learn how to trap them to get them fixed.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Thank you for all you do for the cats and dogs in our community!<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though access to spay\/neuter services has been disrupted due to the pandemic, there are still things all of us can do to help animals until veterinarians and clinics can fully reopen again. Be a good neighbor The shortage of spay\/neuter and shelter services makes overpopulation and the tragedy of unwanted litters all the more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[182,167,37,180,49,181],"class_list":["post-3763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-snyp-events","tag-covid-19","tag-feral-and-community-cats","tag-feral-cats","tag-how-to-help-animals","tag-snyp-clinic","tag-stray-cats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3911,"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions\/3911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spayneuter.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}