GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Clay County Animal Services is partnering with Petco Love for National Foster A Pet Month by encouraging pet fostering with a “Focus on Fun.” Pet fostering saves lives and is critical for animal shelters, which tend to fill up quickly during the busy summer season. Shelter staff relies on foster families to provide temporary, loving homes to free up space in the shelter, and to provide needed socialization, and some basic training to improve the pet’s chance of finding a forever home through adoption.

“The shelter at Clay County Animal Services takes in between 3,200 and 3,500 animals on average each year with over 90% of those being adopted, rescued or returned to their families,” said Board of County Commissioners Chairman Wayne Bolla. “Our shelter foster program is a critical component of the shelter’s high success rate,”

Foster families have many opportunities to help save lives and improve the quality of life for shelter pets by opening their homes. Fosters are always needed for cats, kittens, and dogs, and foster families with the ability to care for senior pets or pets with special medical needs are also needed. All medical care is provided by the shelter at no cost to the foster. If you are looking for less commitment but still want to help, Animal Services offers the Bow Wow Breakout program to enrich a dog’s life with a day outing or sleepover.  

President of Petco Love Susanne Kogut said, “Data tells us that if we could encourage two percent more of the 85-million pet-owning households to foster just one pet a year, we can eliminate preventable euthanasia and save the lives of 800,000 shelter animals in the U.S. annually.”

This year’s National Foster a Pet Month theme is Focus on Fun, and in the spirit of giving back to the community, Petco Love is teaming up with Skechers and its BOBS from Skechers philanthropic footwear collection to put the focus on the fun in fostering pets through the My Foster Break Up Contest. Foster parents can enter to win by sharing a photo and breakup letter from their foster pet on Instagram throughout June using the hashtag #MyFosterBreakUp.

Winning prizes include Foster Breakup Kits with breakup essentials, a curated playlist to help foster pet parents through their goodbyes, and the chance of winning $10,000 in lifesaving funds and a doggy ice cream party for Clay County Animal Services.

“Through our partnership with Petco Love during National Foster a Pet Month, we hope to raise awareness about the life-saving act of fostering and put a positive spin on the difficult task of saying goodbye when foster pets go to their forever homes,” said Angela Deluca, Clay County Foster Coordinator.

To learn more about Clay County’s Foster Program or to submit a foster application, visit https://www.claycountygov.com/community/animal-services/foster-information or Email: clayfosters@claycountygov.com.