Giving up a pet can be difficult. Whether no one can take care of them or you there’s just not enough money to keep them, many pets end up at the pound. You tell yourself that you pet will wait, in the good care of the pound, for a better, more suitable family, but that’s not always the case. “Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Each year around 2.7 million animals are euthanized”.    Animals that are dropped off by owners can be euthanized at any point following the standard holding period.  Many of these standards are set very low. If an animal shows any symptoms of illness, they are euthanized. If an animal shows slight aggression towards other pets or trainers, they are euthanized. If an animal is a stray and has not been picked up by the owner in the next 4 days, they are euthanized. The problem is that these animals don’t even get the chance to live and prove that their existence is not something that can be killed just because they barked at a stranger or had a slight sneeze.

The kennels at animal shelters are usually small and compact so that the shelter can fit as many animals as possible. The crowded living leads to many cases where the animals become ill and or depressed. If an animal catches an illness, it will most likely be euthanized because the shelter cannot afford expensive medical care.  If the animals are lucky, volunteers will come by and take them out for walks and play with them. Otherwise, they are confined in a small compartment, where they use the restroom, with about 25 other barking or crying animals. This often leads to distress or depression of the animals which lead to bad behavior and rejection of food and human contact. This type of behavior is what gets animals euthanized. They should get the chance to be let out and experience life outside the kennel, but with the lack of volunteers, they are stuck inside the walls of the shelter. Shelters are overcrowded, but with the help of volunteers, foster homes, and donations, many animals can live a long life outside the pound.

Gather your friends, family, or peers and volunteer at a local animal shelter. Students can fill volunteer hours while helping innocent animals. Volunteers would walk the animals and have free time to play with them, giving them a chance to stretch outside of the kennels.  Donations for the animals would also give them more activities to do. Tennis balls, Frisbees, even old stuffed animals can be donated to shelters so that the animal have toys to play with. Since everything is either volunteer or donation-based, the costs to help out shelters are very minimal. The only thing being spent would be labor from volunteering and collecting donations, but the plan to save these animals is very cost-efficient. Keeping them healthy and active also avoids expensive medical costs. These are easy solutions that can help make the lives of pets humane.