As Kansas City braces for its first major winter storm of the year (this one is looking ugly), Spay/Neuter Kansas City's outreach program got some great news coverage yesterday. SNKC's outreach program is designed to go into poor, urban neighborhoods in Kansas City and helping pet owners to take better care of their pets in harsh winter conditions. They help provide good dog houses, straw, food, blankets, etc for people who may not be able to afford it.
Obviously, they try to get as many of the animals as possible indoors -- but for many who rent houses, bringing the dog indoors may not be an option. In the end, their goal is to make things as comfortable for the dogs as possible -- and help low-income pet owners. By helping keep these animals in their homes, it helps prevent more animals from coming into the shelter -- and eventually being replaced.
I can't say enough good things about this program. I think it is an awesome way to not only help animals, but to build trust in neighborhoods that are often targeted by enforcement officials. Instead of going into the neighborhoods to punish people for "not caring for their dogs", they are going in and helping people. It's a completely different mindset than many have - -and a way better end result. Nice program for SNKC -- and great news coverage by KSHB.
Thanks for posting this. In a perfect world, all dogs would live inside the house as family pets, but this is not a perfect world that we live in. I agree that is a huge step in the right direction! Good homes don't pop up out of the blue. We can make people better pet owners by educating them. What a great service they are doing in that area! You are so right - they are helping the dogs while building trust with the owners.
Posted by: Jenn | December 28, 2009 at 05:58 PM
Fabulous program! Thank you for sharing.
Posted by: Aimee Schantz Clark | December 29, 2009 at 04:47 PM