Franklin County dog fosters throw party, raise awareness
GROVEPORT, Ohio (WCMH) -- Shelters across the state are seeing an influx of dogs coming into their shelters.
The shelter animal count shows so far this year, around 681,000 dogs have entered shelters across the United States. Franklin County is seeing this pressure firsthand as every single cage was full earlier this month.
They put out a plea and people stepped up, through adoptions and fostering. Now one couple is sharing the impact fostering can have, for the dogs and for their foster humans.
Two long-time Franklin County dog fosters are getting ready to move, but they didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye to the 17 dogs they’ve fostered over the years or without showing how much fostering can help.
"It's crazy. It's the best day of my life," Franklin County Dog Shelter foster mom Abigail Lee said.
Lee got her first dog at 18 and since then, she and her partner Julia Murray have taken in many fosters and helped them find a forever home.
"People always asked, ‘How do you not get attached? How do you not keep them all?’ We would love to. However, then there wouldn't be more fosters," Lee said.
They are emphasizing just how important it is to foster; not only does it help make space for the shelter to take in more dogs, but it helps the dogs, too.
"They come in so sick and when they leave, they are so happy and well-adjusted," Lee said.
"Fostering is huge,” shelter care manager Hannah Henschen said. “It gives us an opportunity to learn more about how a dog does in a home environment, which is really helpful and also just gets dogs out of the shelter environment, which, for a lot of dogs, can be stressful here.”
It gets the dogs into homes and helps make space, which isn’t just an issue in central Ohio.
"It's been a nationwide thing,” Henschen said. “I've talked with a lot of different other shelters. I have a friend who works at a shelter in Alaska and they're seeing the same problems that we are here, just an overpopulation of pets and maybe, maybe some kind of decrease in adoptions as well.”
Lee and Murray are already signed up to foster in their new home city.
If you are interested in fostering with the Franklin County Dog Shelter, you can find more information here.