Szczecin’s shelter makes an appeal: Don’t abandon your pet on holiday!
Marta Kufel
It is hard to imagine what an animal feels when it loses everything overnight. While being totally confused, it needs to change its home into a shelter box, and instead of playing with its owner, it keeps sitting alone and waiting, often for a miracle...
In the past week alone, 18 dogs were brought to the Szczecin Homeless Animals Shelter! Since the beginning of June, this figure has already reached 28 dogs!
As reported by the Szczecin Homeless Animals Shelters staff, there are various reasons for bringing a dog to the shelter. Sometimes the owner passes away, leaving behind his/her furry friend whom no one in the family wants or is able to take care of. At other times, this decision is motivated by the owner’s illness or a difficult life situation. While a holiday trip can hardly be considered one of these, the alarming statistics of dog admissions in recent weeks seem to precisely match the approaching holiday period.
A shelter should only be a stop, preferably as short as possible, on the way to finding a new home for the animals staying there. Unfortunately, this seems impossible to provide homes to all the dogs that have arrived at the shelter in recent days, given especially the soaring inflation and rising living costs. The statistics are brutal ‒ only one in two dogs, and one in four cats, ending up in a homeless animals shelter finds a new home, so we are making an appeal: DON’T ABANDON YOUR PET!
Before making a holiday trip, consider the following options:
- taking the dog with you (there are more and more hotels and places that accept pets);
- asking your family or friends (perhaps there is someone who could look after your pet while you are on a trip);
- leaving your pet at a pet hotel while you are away;
- using the assistance of pet-sitters, whose services can be arranged individually in line with your needs (taking the dog for a walk, overnight stay, care for a few hours or days).
There are currently 27 cats and 66 dogs staying at the Homeless Animals Shelter in Szczecin.
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