Needs
MEDICAL CARE: Medical needs range broadly. Your dollars support basic vaccines and spay/neuter services both at the Front Street Animal Shelter and in the larger community. You help animal guardians who face the prospect of returning a beloved pet to the shelter because of looming veterinary bills. You provide advanced medical care such as orthopedic surgery for severely injured animals. Many of the animals entering a municipal shelter are sick and injured. An open intake facility cannot turn away animals. So, we often see those in dire need, often in deplorable condition. Additionally, Front Street cares for investigation cases in which an animal is severely abused, neglected, or injured. These animals also need and deserve our help. To increase lifesaving results, your donations are critical. Municipal funding is not sufficient to pay for advanced veterinary care. Through your donations, far more animals are able to receive necessary care before they can find new homes.
FOSTER AND RESCUE: In a normal year, the Front Street Animal Shelter places 4500 animals in foster homes. Typically, all animals under the age of eight weeks move immediately to foster care. Thousands of these animals are newborn kittens and puppies who would not survive if not for human intervention. But foster families also provide an essential respite for many animals who don't do well in the shelter setting. This program covers all associated costs for food, supplies, medical care, and behavioral support. We rely on your donor dollars and community volunteers to help us care for the underage, sick, timid, and fearful animals to help them and prepare them for adoption.
ADOPTIONS: A vibrant adoption program is critical to increase lifesaving. The Front Street Animal Shelter adopts out more than 5,000 companion animals in a normal year. Preparing an animal for adoption includes a variety of needs with significant associated costs. Your dollars support approximately 150 offsite community and adoption events each year that provide not only a means to improve Front Street's adoptions, but to educate and inspire the community to "adopt, don't shop." We want to get pets back home to their families where they belong, but when that isn't possible or appropriate, adopting our animals into new homes is a must. By providing rehabilitative care to animals that may be timid or extremely fearful, Front Street is able to place animals that were once considered to be unadoptable. Your contributions allow Front Street to tap expertise so staff and volunteers can evaluate and modify troublesome behaviors. Investing time and energy in these animals give them the best chance to be adopted or go to a rescue that can continue the process of improving behavior.
ADOPTICE: Our newest endeavor is a hospice adoption program called AdoptUs. Too many animals come to the shelter in their latter years of life, or with conditions that will limit their remaining lifespan. But these pets are often in no immediate pain and still have love to give. We are matching these pets with big-hearted individuals and families who will give them the best home possible for their final days. We're picking up the cost of needed veterinary medical care to keep these pets happy and comfortable as long as possible.
EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH: A small portion of our fundraising efforts are invested in marketing, but only when absolutely necessary to spread our lifesaving messaging. We utilize as many free platforms as possible to create and expand interest in shelter pets. The Front Street Animal Shelter has a powerful social media reach, and we are committed to utilizing our fundraising dollars for things that directly support the animals in our care. Additionally, we support a vibrant volunteer program that engages a multitude of community members to support the shelter. Your donations assist Front Street in maintaining both efforts.
PROSECUTION OF ANIMAL ABUSE AND NEGLECT: Your dollars support a critical need in the prosecution of those who inhumanely neglect, maliciously injure, or kill helpless animals in our community. You assist the Front Street Shelter Enforcement Team, a major contributing member of the Sacramento Animal Cruelty Task Force, by funding the medical expertise necessary to prove the cause of injury or death-and, in some cases, to show that injury or death was not the result of crime. The FBI recognizes that animal cruelty can be a precursor to domestic abuse and other violent crimes against humans. Stopping the process and educating the public when abusers are prosecuted can lead to a safer society for all of us. But that's not all your dollars do. The animals who are victimized often require specialized placement or extensive long-term care before they are ready to be adopted. Your donations help to ensure that these animals are not victimized again by surviving abuse only to be put down because we lack needed resources to help them overcome the trauma of abuse.