A community can support animal welfare in many ways. For example, volunteers and foster families help shelter animals by caring for them until they find homes.
Fundraising allows people to give money directly to a cause. For instance, a farm used crowdfunding to raise money to save two horses from a kill pen.
Adopt a Pet
When you adopt a pet, you save a life, create more room at shelters for other animals in need, and take a proactive approach to responsible ownership. Bringing an animal into your home also provides a companion, reduces stress and loneliness, and helps foster recovery from trauma or neglect.
Adoptable animals often get overlooked, but by sharing their stories on social media and promoting adoption events at shelters or in communities, you can encourage others to consider giving a pet a new home. Supporting spay/neuter programs in your community can help reduce pet overpopulation and prevent euthanasia.
Bringing awareness to local cruelty cases helps protect animals in need and can lead to stronger laws to protect them. You can also help by educating children about respecting and protecting animals, and by speaking out against domestic violence in the community.
Volunteer
Animal welfare involves the physical and emotional well-being of an animal. It differs from animal rights, which is an individual’s philosophical belief about what animals deserve.
Investigations and Exposes: PETA conducts undercover investigations to expose and document animal abuse and cruelty at factories, laboratories, slaughterhouses, and other facilities. They then share the information with the public and government agencies to spark change and drive legal reforms.
Education and Outreach: Animal shelters, like PAWS, provide humane education programs that encourage responsible pet ownership and wildlife conservation, as well as spay/neuter and vaccination services. They also conduct community outreach and collaborate with other organizations to improve animal protection laws and policies.
Donations allow animal shelters to increase adoptions, create lifesaving programs, and educate the public on animal welfare issues. You can make a one-time gift or become an ongoing monthly donor, helping to save lives all year round.
Donate
A donation to animal welfare organizations helps them increase adoptions, promote spaying/neutering, create lifesaving programs, and educate the public about animal issues. Donations also allow shelters and rescue groups to purchase essential supplies like food, toys, beds, crates, collars, leashes, flea and tick treatments, office products, and more.
Organizations like the ASPCA work tirelessly to end animal cruelty by providing first responders with resources, collaborating with law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute abusers, raising awareness about the link between domestic violence and neglect of animals, and establishing no-kill initiatives that seek to achieve a 90% or higher save rate for all shelter pets.
Wild Animal Initiative researches to understand and alleviate wild animal suffering, and works to foster collaboration and networking among researchers and advocates. Their work focuses on understanding population dynamics, predator-prey relationships, disease prevalence, and interventions to reduce wild animal suffering.
Share Your Story
Whether you’re communicating with donors, staff, animal welfare partners, or lawmakers, it’s important to provide a clear call-to-action when sharing your story. Your audience will want to know how they can get involved, and that could mean adopting a pet, volunteering, or engaging their elected officials on animal protection legislation.
Anti-Cruelty Initiatives
The ASPCA combats animal cruelty through investigations, legal actions, and public awareness campaigns. They work with law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute animal abusers and help educate the public on how to spot signs of animal cruelty.
Research and Wild Animal Welfare
Wild Animal Initiative researches to improve our understanding of wildlife suffering in the wild. Their work includes studying population dynamics, predator-prey relationships, and disease prevalence in order to develop more effective interventions that will reduce the suffering of wild animals.
Mercy for Animals strives to create a more compassionate world by educating people on the inherent cruelty in factory farming and encouraging them to make more ethical food choices. They do this through undercover investigations that expose the cruel conditions in which farmed animals are raised and by lobbying for stronger laws and public policy.
Become an Advocate
If you are a member of the public, staff, donors, animal welfare partners, or lawmakers, you can advocate for animals by raising awareness, pushing for change, and educating others about the issues. You can also advocate for animals by becoming a local community leader, encouraging others to adopt, volunteer, or donate, and by working with your elected officials to draft and pass legislation that supports animal welfare.
Animals need advocates at both local and international levels to push for change that improves their lives. International efforts include animal sheltering, rehabilitation and education, habitat preservation, and advocacy for specific species.
ASPCA anti-cruelty initiatives combat animal cruelty through investigations, legal actions, and raising awareness. They collaborate with law enforcement to prosecute those involved in cruelty cases and work to educate the public about how to recognize and report animal abuse. They also promote responsible pet ownership and support adoptions.