Caring4Creatures offers pet-fostering opportunities
Students envious of the frequent dog walkers on Front Campus can now be appeased, without the high price tag and long-term commitment. Caring4Creatures at GCSU is now equipping students with all the tools to foster a pet.
Founded by Karen Ragusa, Caring4Creatures takes adoptable animals out of shelters and provides foster homes for them until an adoptive family can be found. For the foster parents, Caring4Creatures covers typical costs and provides the animal’s needed supplies.
In the past, students have been foster parents through the program but Jessica McCloskey wanted a more established group for Caring4Creatures at GCSU and has now partnered with The GIVE Center to encourage more student involvement. Every day of fostering adds up to one service hour through The GIVE Center.
“I think it’s easy to see the need for fostering, you can see all of the stray dogs in Milledgeville, it’s not really something students are blind to,” McCloskey said.
Kathryn Adams, a junior psychology major, got involved with Caring4Creatures about a year ago and has fostered seven dogs.
“Shelters and organizations have too many dogs at their facilities and houses and can only save more dogs from being put to sleep if people are willing to foster for them,” Adams said. “So many animals are being put to sleep every day because no one will give them a good home.”
In the U.S. in 2008, an estimated 3.7 million animals were euthanized in shelters, according to the American Humane Association.
“When people (foster) pets, they are saving a life,” Adams said. “It is very rewarding knowing that that pet could have been put to sleep at any moment if it weren’t for their decision to adopt.”
Craig Linenger, the fostering officer of the GCSU branch of Caring4Creatures and a junior computer science major at GCSU, feels fostering is an easy way for college students to enjoy having a dog without the hassles of ownership.
“A lot of students don’t want to commit to a dog of their own yet, so fostering is a great alternative,” Linenger said. “An incentive to want to foster is that students don’t have to pay for things like food and vet bills.”
Linenger and McCloskey became involved about a year ago when they saw Caring4Creatures at Petopia. Linenger adopted a dog shortly after and feels it is a rewarding cause.
“After you’re done fostering, when it gets adopted, it’s good to know you made that possible and got the dog to the position where it could get adopted,” Linenger said.
Caring4Creatures will work with foster parents and if they get attached to an animal, there is always the option of adoption.
Caring4Creatures tries to match up a foster’s personality and needs with a similar dog. Currently, student fosters are being done in semester long periods.
For students who cannot devote the time to foster a dog, there are other ways to get involved. Animal transports are needed between Milledgeville and Atlanta, where the dogs are kept when they are not with fosters. The GCSU branch is also looking to team up to volunteer with the Baldwin County Animal Control and students can get involved in that aspect. Their goal for this semester is to get five to 10 student fosters.
Posted by Katelyn Hebert
on Mar 5 2010. Filed under Features.
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