Rescued dogs in need of foster homes
LAURA BARTON
POSTMEDIA NEWS
Niagara Dog Rescue volunteer Jennifer Cormier says she doesn’t know why, but the summer months are the busiest for the organization.
As the name suggests, the organization rescues dogs, mainly from high-kill shelters across North America and also from the dog meat industry in Thailand.
But because the organization is a nonprofit without a building to call its own, it relies on fosters to help take care of the dogs.
“We just need a place for them to lay their head and get loved until they get adopted,” Cormier says of the role fosters play.
All expenses, including food and vet care, are covered by the organization, she says. So all a foster is doing is opening up his or her home to the dog until it finds its forever home.
The dog rescue, which was founded in 2015, doesn’t have enough funds to own or rent a building to board the dogs, so right now volunteers are what keeps the organization running.
And with 20 to 30 dogs coming in next month, Cormier hopes more people can help out.
She says there’s an application process that each volunteer goes through, including filling out an application form, being interviewed, having a home visit and having references checked. The organization wants to make sure each dog is in good hands with the foster in question.
While somewhere with a fenced-in backyard is preferred, Cormier says it’s not a necessity. She says there are fosters who live in apartment buildings, for instance, and in those cases smaller dogs are fostered out.
She says the organization has rescued more than 1,000 dogs since the beginning of last year. Big dogs, small dogs and all dog shapes and sizes in between are brought into their care and then adopted out.
Donations, merchandise sales, fundraisers and other methods to raise money are used to keep the organization afloat and able to do what it does. There is also the option for people to sponsor a dog, so even if people can’t foster themselves, sponsoring a dog helps with covering the cost of care.
Information and photos of the dogs in the care of Niagara Dog Rescue are on the organization’s website, along with any other information someone might need if they’re interested in fostering a dog or helping out in some other way. Cormier says people can visit niagaradogrescue.org and follow the organization across social media to stay in the loop.