Family fostered 300 pets in 5 years
If you ask Mandy Walker how many pets her family has fostered so far, expect a big number.
Since partnering with the Puyallup Animal Rescue about five and a half years ago, the Walkers have fostered more than 300 puppies and kittens. The Walkers are just one of the handful of families that have offered their homes to homeless pets.
“We’re to the extreme,” Walker said. “We foster all the time.”
The Puyallup Animal Rescue is a nonprofit rescue group based in Pierce County in Washington state. The rescue group does not have a physical building or location — the pets they take in from surrounding shelters live in foster homes, foster coordinator Celina McKenney said.
“We’re all about finding good homes for cats and dogs,” McKenney said.
Through word of mouth and social media, the rescue group has been trying to secure more foster homes in the county. On March 14, one of the foster parents posted on the Being Neighborly: South Hill Facebook page about the need for more foster homes.
“There are so many homeless dogs and cats and our foster homes are full, we can’t take any more, but they don’t stop needing help,” Stephanie Mayes wrote in the Facebook post.
‘A huge need’
A lot of people got dogs during the pandemic, McKenney said. The downside is that pets did not get a lot of opportunities to socialize and receive proper training, she said.
Now that people are returning to in-person work, and as some began to realize that their dogs are not puppies anymore, McKenney said shelters started receiving an overwhelming number of dogs that are about a year old.
“They’re all huskies, German shepherds and pit bulls. It can be really hard to find foster homes that are willing to take these pretty goodsized dogs that have no manners,” McKenney said. “That’s a huge need.”
Before the pandemic, the rescue was asked to take in about 12 pets a month. Now they’re asked to take about 12 pets a week. They’re only able to take about seven a month, McKenney said, thought that varies. They’d like to have 30-50 foster homes to meet the need.
The rescue group has 13 foster homes so far, McKenney said. They get pets from local shelters.
McKenney said a lot of puppies come from Eastern Washington because there are not many spay and neuter programs available there. These programs are also expensive for some as they can range between $150 to $500, she said.
McKenney said the rescue group noticed an increase in homeless pets about a year ago, but it has gotten worse over time, she said. Without having more foster homes, they cannot help Metro Animal Services or Yakima Valley Pet Rescue.
“It’s still happening,” McKenney said.
Volunteers usually foster between one to 10 pets at a time, McKenney said. The foster pets can stay at peoples’ homes for as long as one week or even seven months, she said, until a permanent home is found. And if a foster family decides a pet isn’t the right fit for them, the rescue works to find another foster home.
The Walkers have been living in their South Hill home since 1999. Walker said fostering was not a part of their plan until about six years ago when they visited a kennel, which they later realized was a puppy mill.
“They were being treated like cattle,” said Jaelyn Walker, Mandy Walker’s daughter.
Mandy Walker said after they left the puppy mill she had a breakdown. That was when her husband, Jared, suggested that they consider fostering. Shortly after, she reached out to rescue groups nearby, including the Puyallup Animal Rescue.