All animal shelters are in need of funds and volunteers. There are several ways that you can help :

Voluntary work

Whether you are a student, a housewife or even a fulltime professional, you can spare a few hours every day or even once or twice a week to work at a local shelter. This is extremely important because employees are always overworked and underpaid and there are so many emergency cases pouring in all the time that sooner or later they become immune to suffering. The handling and care of shelter animals is at best impersonal and at worst rough and ready. Since shelter animals are already in poor condition, both mentally and physically, they need gentle personal attention. Some need to be coaxed to eat, others need to be exercised and all of them need to be loved. This is only possible by people who are sympathetic and understanding of an animal's needs. Employees are simply doing a job-they put the food in front of the animal but do not and cannot take the time or trouble to see that it eats it of to check whether it needs a special diet.

Volunteers should meet the shelter administrator and work out a time and work schedule. Duties can include feeding, walking and bathing the animals, assisting the vet, cleaning out kennels, answering the telephone and registering pick up calls (if there is an ambulance service), accompanying should be paid to puppies and kittens who die very quickly in shelters.

Volunteers start with great enthusiasm and regularity. It is vital to maintain this. You have made a commitment which you are expected to honour. The management assigns you certain tasks and depends on you to fulfill them. Failure to show up or stick to the schedule disrupts shelter work and the animals who are creatures of routine suffer. Schools can introduce a scheme whereby students earn points or credits for putting in regular time at a shelter.

Material help

All shelters can use a number of things that you might have no use for. You can organise a regular contribution of old newspapers, bedding, boris, utensils, vegetable peels, leftover food, old medicines, old blankets and bedding, fans, coolers, heaters and so on. Apart from giving these yourself, inform and encourage friends and neighbours too. Arrange a central collection pool for the colony where residents can bring their contributions and the whole lot can be taken to the shelter daily/weekly. You can also contribute milk, biscuits, bread, eggs, green vegetables, grain, fruit and dalia.

If you would like to celebrate an occasion or commemorate a pet by sponsoring a meal at the shelter, enquire how much food is required and at what time. Inform the management that you will be providing this food so that supplies are not duplicated.

Approach restaurants/hotels and ask if they will contribute cereal and vegetarian leftovers like dals/ vegetables on a regular basis. Organise a pick up schedule. This food does wonderfully for cows, pigs, and dogs.

Financial help

If you do not have the time or inclination to work at a shelter, you can contribute towards it financially. You can donate a fixed amount each month or a percentage of your profits. The important thing is to give regularly so that the shelter can be certain of a certain amount coming in.

Building Fund

Every shelter needs to construct enclosures for its animals as these keep increasing. Building requirements include steel, cement, bricks, roofing sheets and so on.

you can help towards the cost of construction by sponsoring a particular encloure. In return that enclosure can be named after you or a person of your choice. You can also contribute materially in the form of building supplies.

Services

Whether you are doctor, an architect, a banker or accountant, shelters can benefit from your professional expertise. Accountants can offer free accounting and auditing services, architects can plan and design shelters, doctors and vets can provide first aid in their own areas and lab facilities and consultation as required, automobile manufacturers can provide free service and repair facilities for shelter vehicles, builders can help supervise construction, teachers can assist at training sessions, advertising agencies can design mailers and publicity material, event managers can organise fundraisers, and anyone who can drive can help out as an ambulance driver. Companies that have pager services can donate a pager to the shelter as this helps pickup services.

Volunteer network

Since there are few, if any animal ambulances, all those in operation are overworked and sometimes one must provide services for the whole city. As a result there is often a huge time gap between a case being reported and the ambulance being free to attend to it. In the meantime, the sick, wounded animal needs help. It also needs to be restrained in a safe place so that the ambulance does not waste time searching for it.

Every shelter therefore needs volunteers around the city who can be informed of cases in their area. Thereafter it will be the volunteer's responsibility to go to the given address and ensure that the animal is fed, watered, administered some first aid and kept till the ambulance arrives. To be part of this network you need a telephone or pager so that messages can be relayed.

Get the book First Aid for Animals (Rs. 60) from Sterling publishers and learn how to help an injured animal. You should also tie up with local vets to help out in emergencies until the animal can be removed to the shelter. This will save the shelter time and the animal's suffering and possibly even its life.

In case of an emergency involving a small animal, you should be able to take the animal to the shelter yourself if necessary.

Fundraising

Every shelter needs help fundraising. You can do this by organising celebrity support for fundraising events, prepare and send out direct mail appeals, organise school raffles, getting prizes sponsored by local companies, set up stalls at local fetes and fairs, contact local firms and veterinary manufacturers for donations, make and sell cards, distribute and monitor donation boxes at suitable sites like hotels, restaurants, shops, cinema halls, offices, banks and so on.

Adoption

Every shelter has dogs/cats/pups/kittens that need homes. You can help by making and distributing flyers advertising this. Put up flyers at veterinary clinics, shops, clubs, schools, restaurants and so on. You can organise visits by school children to the shelter on adoption days.

Printing and Publicity

People need to know where to take or report animals that need help. Publicity also helps the shelter raise funds. You can help to publicise the shelter by making and distributing flyers about it. Ask the newspaperman to insert the flyer with the paper. You can also ask your local cable operator to put out a regular advertisement for the shelter.

Approach local newspapers for space to advertise shelter animals and services. Get sympathetic media people to cover the shelter on a regular basis. Ask advertisement agencies to design, print and make television ads and find corporate sponsors for them. Write letters to the newspapers about the shelter. Send articles on the shelter to magazines. Find a filmmaker who can make a short film on the shelter which can be shown to prospective donors.

Tree planting

Plant trees in and around the shelter and in your colony. Be sure to provide a tree guard with every sapling as otherwise these plants will not survive. You can get these plants from government nurseries at nominal rates. Choose fruit trees or peepal trees which will grow to provide shade and fruit for the animals.

Collect medicines from your colony

See that they are not too old to be used and donate them to the shelter.