#stitch with @star 🧡🤍🩷 they/he Fostering is awesome, and we definitely need more nonprofits in lower resource communities to fill the gap! And we need engaged volunteers to continue to advocate for it! Unfortunately though, inadvertently, the no-kill movement has provided the perfect conditions not just for reduced resourcing for the shelters that need them the most - but for increasing instances and severity of hoarding and neglect. If there isn’t a dedicated person to manage a foster program, homes often end up with too many animals, without proper training or supplies to not just get animals healthy enough for adoption - but actually increase the likelihood that there’s an outbreak of diseases without vets to get them under control. And then once they’re ready to be adopted, there isn’t anyone to facilitate those adoptions. And what’s worse, these homes feel like they aren’t safe to return the animals when it’s time for adoption, so they keep them all, until they get completely overwhelmed and suddenly a shelter with 10 kennels and two staff members, has 50 sick, inbred animals they have to find emergency placement for. And when the shelter inevitably isn’t able to handle it, they once again will get excoriated for creating the problem. and the foster that was trying to do what they thought was the right thing, will end up publicly shamed and potentially jailed for it. Running a foster program is a LOT of work - even under the best conditions for a small number of animals. The number one way to make a dent shelter overcrowding is investing in programs that support communities in getting access to spay/neuter services, vaccines, and financial aid that allows families to keep their pets rather than having to surrender them, or let them loose in their neighborhoods to mate. We also need education, in languages that the locals actually speak, on why these things are important. And we need regulation on breeding and feral colony management, including what constitutes sales on the internet. But that is a lot to ask of municipalities for communities that have humans sleeping on their streets, so we have to rely on nonprofit rescue groups who have the ability to access funding and volunteers to start making a dent in it. And in the mean time we need to change the way we talk about low resource shelters, so that people are encouraged to support shelters that are forced to euthanize, provide them with funding, better leadership, step up and volunteer, even if it’s hard to watch and feels unjust. If you are a volunteer who has the ability to foster with a high resource organization, do it! It makes more space to get animals out of bad situations. If you have the means to support a lower resource group and are okay working with less, thats incredible and you are so so needed too! Thank you for choosing to foster, you are amazing, and rescue groups like mine appreciate you! #fosteringsaveslives #animalshelter