The Guilford County Division of Social Services is always seeking foster parents – a big responsibility – and, right now, for those who’d like something a little bit easier to handle than a new kid, the Guilford County Animal Services Department has a major need for foster families for dogs.
A recent all-caps exclamation-point-ending posting on the shelter’s Facebook page makes that clear.
“WE NEED TO MOVE DOGS OUT OF THE SHELTER!” it reads.
The message from Animal Services leaders to the county’s animal lovers notes that taking on a dog – even for a short period of time – could be a life-saving move.
“The kennels are full,” the message reads, followed by a plea to, “Consider taking one home, even if just for a week. It could potentially save a life.”
The county’s Animal Services website adds, “As a foster parent, you are a volunteer and part of a massive life-saving mission to help prevent animal homelessness and overpopulation. As we expand our life-saving programs, working collaboratively is more crucial than ever, both in the shelter and outside of our front doors.”
Of course, the shelter’s foster program has a slight degree of unstated trickery to it. Shelter staff hope families fall so in love with a dog or other animal they foster that they just decide to keep the animal permanently.
Guilford County opened a brand new animal shelter in November 2021 at 980 Guilford College Road. While much nicer than the former facility on West Wendover Avenue, the new shelter has a significantly lower capacity – which means Animal Services must now rely more on programs like the foster program to keep the population down.
If you’re interested in helping out the shelter, you can visit
https://www.guilfordcountync.gov/our-county/animal-services/adopt/animals-in-need-of-foster where you’ll find a wide variety of adorable dogs to choose from. If you see a pet you’re interested in fostering, you can contact Kendelle Federico, the shelter’s Foster Coordinator. Federico can be reached via email at kfederico@guilfordcountync.gov or by text at 336-266-4138.
Of all the charitable contributions we can engage in, fostering homeless dogs is the most beneficial and the most personally rewarding! Human beings have utterly failed all these dogs – it’s one of the greatest failures of American society. Help solve this tragedy by fostering. You will not be sorry. We fostered homeless dogs for 18 years, and it was an amazing experience.
Much of blame/responsibility for the sad situation at the animal shelter lies completely with irresponsible pet owners. The ones who do not have their pets spayed or neutered. The ones who abuse their animals and the pitiful creatures are taken from them. The ones who “needed” a pet during covid, but, when life returned to normal, decided the animal was disposable. They are the people who have contributed significantly to the animal shelter crisis.
No thanks, last time I looked on the website, the vast majority of the dogs they had for adoption were either pit bull terriers or pit bull mix. I was told( (by someone who adopted a small dog from the agency) that most of the desirable dogs are grabbed up, vaccinated and treated then let out for adoption by some agency. The couple we talked to said they had to spend several hundred dollars to get the small dog they “adopted”.
Why on Earth did they build a new shelter with “significantly lower capacity”..?
Are they stupid?
Oh, they had a “plan”.
That is exactly the way I feel. The need for space is more critical than ever for animals and we build a facility with less space that is crazy.
They might have better luck, if they would answer the phone.
Now that we have finally got a wonderful shelter I’d like to suggest reaching out to the no kill shelter in Lynchburg VA. They have had wonderful success and would open up the knowledge to help Guilford County.