El Paso Animal Services launches new program to help stray animals find a home
El Paso Animal Services recently launched a new program aimed at helping reunite lost pets with their owners and so far the program has been a success.
Paula Powell is the director of El Paso Animal services, she says the program is called “Finder to Foster,” and the goal is get a stray animal back into a home.
“It’s better that the animals stay in a nice home than actually end up here at the shelter,” Powell said.
Powell says the program allows someone who finds a lost pet, to foster the animal for up to two weeks.
If the owner can’t be found, the foster parent can then choose to adopt the animal themselves.
Before, those who found a lost animal had a hard time trying to adopt it because they couldn’t keep the animal, but the new program simplifies the process.
“And so we made the policy change and it’s been pretty successful in the short amount of time,” Powell said. “Other cities across the country are now looking to adapt the same type of program.”
Since the “Finder to Foster” program launched in January, Powell says 37 animals have been adopted by the person who found them and some of the lost animals were successfully reunited with their owners.
Some people fear that by turning in a stray animal to Animal Services, it will result in the animal being euthanized, but Powell says people shouldn’t hesitate to bring an animal in.
“Especially if you want to help us by fostering it,” Powell said. “We’ll gladly scan it, look for the owner ourselves and try to do everything we can to try to reunite with the owner.”
Powell says the program will help in the shelter’s efforts of becoming a “No-Kill Shelter” by 2020.
“Fostering is key to life saving,” Powell said. “There’s all kinds of ways that you can help us. Foster, adopt, donate or volunteer, those are the four key components to this. If we can increase in all of those areas we will hit that goal.”
If you’d like to learn more about the “Finder to Foster” program or how to become a foster parent, you can call the El Paso Animal Services center at 915-212-7297.
