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Adopt a Pet: 5 Ways to Help Animals

Stray Animals Affect Everyone

If you’re interesting in helping animals, there is no better way than to adopt a pet. Taking care of animals is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone is responsible for making sure animals are off the street, spayed and neutered so there aren’t more dogs and cats than we have homes for, properly medicated with flea and tick medication and up to date on immunizations. However, when you’re planning to get a dog, you may want to first find out what dogs are banned before buying one.

Otherwise, they cause problems for EVERYONE, whether you love furry friends or not, it might be your children who are bitten by a stray that could have been prevented, if people did their part to help with this problem. It might be your dog who is attacked with fleas and ticks because a stray dog came a little too close. It’s everyone’s problem.

Helping animals is essential for thriving communities. Even if you can't adopt a pet, here are 5 ways to help your furry friends.


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Caring for animals

Unfortunately, people seem to have the favorite saying, “someone should do something about that!” Not realizing that it takes everyone to work towards a solution. Even if you can’t adopt a pet, here are 5 ways we can help animals furry friends.


  1. Donate to Furry Friends Rescue

    “Someone should do something about this.” Animal shelters are doing something, they take our furry friends in off the street, give them their immunizations and and get them spayed and neutered, but they need our help. If you can’t adopt a pet, they also need help walking dogs, cleaning and organizing. They also need donations, such as Flea and Tick Medication, cat food, dog food, Soft Bedding, Scratching Pad, leashes and cleaning supplies. They might have a specific kind of product they buy, so contact them before you buy anything.

    If you’re from out of state, I encourage you to take action to help your local shelters. Some have Amazon Wishlists that make it very easy to donate.

    In Stillwater:
    Tiny Paws, which also has an Amazon Wishlist
    Stillwater Humane Society
    Just a short drive away is the Perkins shelter.

    In Muskogee:
    Fur Babies’ biggest need is grain-free dog food for easy digestion, Canned pumpkin for upset stomachs, leashes, Next Guard Flea and Tick (available through a vet) and pet blankets. Buy these products through Amazon Smile and Fur Babies will receive a percentage of that money.

2. Eat less meat

Hopefully, most people know the perils of factory farming by now, but in case you’re in an ignorant bliss, check out this video to catch up with the rest of us. This video might seem ridiculous, but the farmers who raise these animals say they can’t possibly treat animals with respect because people require too much meat. Our demand requires more room than they have, so they stuff them into tiny crates, cut off their tail, horns or whatever natural defense an animal have, and leave them in horrible conditions. Fortunately, the tides are changing, people are eating less meat and demanding respect for the animals. Farmers are still concerned that they don’t have enough room for their customer’s demands to let their animals roam free. So to help, participate in Meatless Mondays, and get a weekly recipe emailed or texted to you.

3. Ask for More

Ask your local restaurants and grocery stores to switch toΒ cage-free eggs or humanely raised meat. Again, there is nothing worse than factory farms. The best thing we can do for all our animal friends is to demand that they be treated fairly.

4. Adopt a pet

Adopt a pet from a local animal shelter or rescue group. It breaks my heart to know that people buy pets to love when there are so many beautiful animals dying without ever experiencing that love. And of the dogs in shelters, 25 percent are purebreds. Even after someone spent all that money, they still end up without home and love. It’s important that we love the animals already here before we bring more into the world, while also showing support to the animal shelters that work so hard and bring many benefits to our community. Without the support of a community, animal shelters would have to close and there would be many lost dogs and cat bringing disease and problems into our communities, and dying without love.

5. Spay and neuter your Furry Friends

If you can’t adopt a pet, please take care of the ones you have. Spay and neutering your pets is a critical park in helping animals. The statistics for this subject are unreal. An average cat has 1-8 kittens per litter and 2-3 litters per year. During her productive life, one female cat could have more than 100 kittens. A single pair of cats and their kittens can produce as many as 420,000 kittens in just 7 years. This is the single biggest contributor to pain and suffering experienced by strays.

There are only about 13,600 shelters in the US, but more 70 million stray cats. There is just no way to help them all. Please do your part to spay or neuter your animals and get them proper immunizations, even if their strictly indoor animals, there is no way of knowing what kind of trouble you might get into down the road.


I’d love to hear what other ways people are helping animals, please leave a comment below!

Don’t forget to pin these ideas for later!

Helping animals is essential for thriving communities. Even if you can't adopt a pet, here are 5 ways to help your furry friends.

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10 thoughts on “Adopt a Pet: 5 Ways to Help Animals

  1. I would love to adopt more from the local shelter…I just wish they didn’t make it so difficult and expensive. There is a home study and a 72 hour waiting period (crazy!!) along with a $250 fee…

    1. I understand the frustration and I too have mixed feelings, though I don’t think ours are quite as strict. Running an animal shelter is expensive and they don’t receive a lot of support, so they have to charge extra to make up that difference. Also, I think there are so many people out there that try to hurt animals. I would rather them be safe than sorry, but that’s just me. πŸ™‚

  2. Wow, those statistics on spaying cats are alarming! I had no idea! We rescued a cat 14 years ago and she’s still going strong. We couldn’t imagine life without her! I can’t ever imagine harming an animal and I don’t understand people who do, it makes me so sad when I head about it in the news! πŸ™

    1. That’s wonderful! Our cats are all rescues too, but they found us rather than the other way around. My life would be very empty without them. It is very sad, but I think overtime people are becoming more aware of the problems and better educating the kids to care for animals.

  3. A girlfriend of mine walks shelter dogs sometimes on her lunch hour. It is too bad that it costs so much to adopt a shelter pet. We have vets here in town who give reduced rates for spay and neutering adopted shelter pets. (some type of certificate that comes with the adoption)

    1. Yes, it can be kind of expensive to adopt, but I know plenty of people who will fork over $500 or more to get a certain breed, and unfortunately sometimes that contributes to the overpopulation problem. That’s awesome that your vets can offer such a service. That certainly makes things easier!

  4. One thing that I think goes along with this list is: search out local farms that have cattle, chickens, ducks, etc. Local farmers typically sell chicken eggs and not only could they use the extra business, but by supporting them, you are making it easier to keep producing meat, eggs, and milk so that they can sell. Some farmers will let you “purchase” a angus bull and you pay to have it sent to be processed. It’s an expensive endeavor up front, but buying the one bull can last you a year or more for meat. Then you’ve supported a farmer who treats their animals well, you don’t have to worry about “where it’s been”, and you still get to eat the food you enjoy πŸ™‚

    1. So true, Kristin! My mom bought even half a cow and it’s lasted for quite a while. This is so very true. Thanks for commenting!

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