Introduction Every year in Wake County, about 5000 cats and 5500 dogs are taken into a shelter for potential adoption. Approximately 3/5ths of these animals are adopted but the remaining 2/5ths spend the rest of their lives in the shelter and never find a real home (Troxler 2015). This issue also affects people is many ways. Zoonotic diseases (diseases transmitted from animals to people) such as rabies, ringworm, scabies and leptospirosis can be an issue (Trotman). Our goal is to donate supplies to Second Chance, an animal shelter in Wake County that helps dogs and cats find new homes. We are interested in this issue because it is very important to us that cats and dogs, as well as other domestic animals have an equal chance to have a good life. One person in our group has a cat that was rescued from a shelter. He was in the shelter for a very long time and no one was adopting him. That experience made us realize how much homeless animals need all of our help. Everyone should care about this issue because it affects the entire community by costing money for shelters, food and supplies are needed for the animals, and overpopulation of dogs and cats can lead to more diseases and worse hygiene. The Issue There are many animals in shelters all over North Carolina and many never get adopted. In 2015, about 1,780 cats and 923 dogs were euthanized just in Wake County (2015 Public Animal Shelter Report). Homeless animals don't always have access to food, water, and shelter. Homeless animals affect people by spreading disease, causing stray dog or cat attacks, and impact wildlife as well as livestock negatively because they can hurt or kill the crops. Animal homelessness has been an issue in our community for a long time and will continue to be an issue unless something is done. If we help homeless animals this will become less of an issue. There are many causes and effects of homeless animals. The main cause of animal homelessness is overpopulation. One cause of overpopulation is when people don't spay or neuter their pets. There are not enough people who want to adopt, so these animals tend to stay in shelters for a long time. If this issue is not taken care of animal homelessness could become an even bigger issue which means that more dogs and cats would end up in a shelter or even end up euthanized. Solutions These dogs and cats as well as other animals need our support. Homelessness is a big issue in North Carolina and something must be done. The dogs and cats need food, water, and other supplies. Currently, there are many organizations that are set up to help homeless animals. Second Chance, SPCA, and Saving Grace are all examples of organizations in Raleigh, North Carolina that support these animals. They put animals up for adoption, accept donations, and take care of needy cats and dogs. ”The mission statement of the SPCA remains as relevant now as it was when it was written in 1967: To protect, shelter and promote the adoption of homeless animals” (SPCA of Wake County 2017) is a quote from the SPCA that shows how much homeless animals need us. There are many reasons why homeless animals are still an issue in Raleigh. One reason could be because people don’t spay or neuter their animals, and sometimes shelters can’t either. This leads to an overpopulation, resulting in more animals on the street that need our help. Also, some people have a lack of caring for their pets, and end up “disposing” of them onto the streets, where they will most likely be picked up by a shelter. As you can see, there are still many problems in N.C. concerning homeless animals. Conclusion A way that we can help these animals out is by donating supplies to Second Chance, a no-kill rescue organization in Raleigh, North Carolina. Supplies we could donate are cat litter, food, paper towels, puppy pads and more. We would create and set up posters around the school as well as make a news announcement that would convince people to donate these supplies to a bin that we would have set up near the cafeteria. We would also want to talk to the builders club about helping spread the word about the donations. Once we have all the donations, a teacher will drop the donations off at Second Chance. When everything is set up, we would give students a week and a half.The biggest problem we would have is the lack of time to make all the posters and make a news announcement. For this donation/fundraiser the main thing that you would need to know is when we would collect the donations. You would also need to know how we would spread the word about collect the donations. Which we would do by making posters and maybe having an announcement on the news. Our goal for collecting these donations is that we could collect at least 30 items for Second Chance Pet Adoptions. We want to collect some of their most needed supplies such as cat litter, canned kitten food, paper towels etc. If we receive at least 30 items donated we will know that we achieved our goal. These animals need our help, and we need to support them in any way that we can. Bibliography Troxler, Steve. “WAKE COUNTY ANIMAL CARE CONTROL”. 2015 Public Animal Shelter Report. Monday, April 18, 2016. Friday, March 17, 2017 <http://www.ncagr.gov/vet/aws/fix/documents/2015AnimalShelterReportPDF4-18-16.pdf> Trotman, Mark. “Impact of stray dogs and cats on the community”. March 30, 2017 <http://www.hsi.org/assets/pdfs/regional_realities.pdf> ‘Our Shopping List.” 2nd Chance Pet Adoptions. 2017. March 17, 2017 <https://www.secondchancenc.org/support-us/our-shopping-list/> “Shelter Intake and Surrender.” ASPCA. 2017. <https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics> Pictures (Spinelli 2016)
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