The community-wide disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on so many vital services, including animal fostering and adoption. But the crisis has revealed opportunity, as well — something Annenberg Foundation Chairman and CEO Wallis Annenberg expressed in a hopeful editorial for Los Angeles Magazine:
For the animals, the benefits are without question. Instead of the often crowded, cramped, noisy, and stressful environments at many city and county shelters, they get to stay in safe and loving households, where they’re embraced as family. The difference is especially profound for puppies and kittens, whose immune systems are still fragile and are highly susceptible to infection in crowded shelters. To put it simply: fostering saves lives. All animals emerge healthier, happier, and in most cases, considerably more adoptable.
But fostering is more than just a good deed. It has enormous benefits for the foster parents, too. Many of them regard it as an “audition,”” and they end up adopting their foster pet. This is known in the animal adoption community as “foster fail” — but I can assure you, there is no better kind of failure.
Read the full article here and learn more about the Wallis Annenberg PetSpace at annenbergpetspace.org.
