National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month: Tails of Hope

October 13, 2015

Guest Blog by Kelly Gillis, Tails of Hope, Nonprofit Member of Maryland Nonprofits

Each month, Maryland Nonprofits selects a nonprofit member to help raise awareness of certain issues with a guest blog. Thank you to Tails of Hope for donating their time to share today’s blog…

Did you know that October is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month? Tails of Hope, a non-profit, 501(c)3 animal welfare group whose mission is to significantly reduce the number of homeless and euthanized dogs and cats, to improve the quality of life of both pets and shelter animals, and to ensure the compassionate treatment of all living creatures, celebrates shelter animals of all shapes, colors, breeds, and sizes, for the loving, beautiful creatures they are.

But the sobering statistic is that, of the roughly 8 million animals that will enter US shelters in the coming year, more than half will likely not make it out alive. Having recently visited a pair of local, rural shelters to drop off food and supplies donated by our supporters, we can tell you firsthand that shelters are chock full of amazing, wonderful dogs and cats who both want and deserve a chance at life. But they need our help.

Traditional rescues and their volunteers work tirelessly, day in and day out, on behalf of these creatures who so desperately want to be a part of a loving home. We fully support and applaud their efforts, but we know that it will never be enough. The missing piece of the puzzle is to stem the tide of unwanted animals, and the key to that is spay and neuter. That’s one focus of our mission, and what sets us apart as a non-traditional, different kind of rescue.

We liken the problem to a leaky pipe in the basement of your home. If you simply continue to mop up the water but don’t find and fix the source of the leak, you’re never going to stop the flow of water. If we never address the cause of the overpopulation problem, millions of innocent animals will continue to lose their lives, year after year.

In January, Tails of Hope will be partnering with Spay Today, an organization that provides low-cost spay/neuter services for dogs and cats. We will donate a monthly stipend to cover the cost of surgery for folks who really want to have their pet spayed or neutered but simply don’t have the means. Spay and neuter will not only help with overpopulation; it’s also much healthier for your pet:

On average, a spayed or neutered pet lives two or three years longer than an intact pet.
Neutering a male dog by six months of age prevents testicular cancer, prostate disease, and hernias.
Spaying a female dog helps prevent uterine cancer and infections as well as breast cancer.
Intact males have a constant urge to roam and also to defend their territory, which can place your pet in danger.
Spaying your female pet will eliminate the mess of being in heat, and for male pets, will help decrease the urge to mark their territory through urination.

Spay and neuter procedures are safe and will help your pet lead a happier, healthier, and longer life!

The statistics are disheartening and discouraging, but we believe there is ALWAYS hope, and will continue to work to change those statistics for good, until every pet has a loving home. There is cause to celebrate the lives that have been saved, and we are doing just that, as Tails of Hope marks 15 years of animal welfare work at our Anniversary Benefit, November 20 at Dutch’s Daughter in Frederick, MD. We’d love for you to join us as we celebrate 15 years and almost 2,200 lives saved! All of the proceeds from the event will go towards our mission. For more info, please visit our webpage.

Fostering Compassion…Preventing Overpopulation…Ending Suffering…

Tails of Hope – A different kind of rescue

http://www.tails-of-hope.org/