The Humane Society for Shelter Pets had a piece in the Daily Camera yesterday (January 29) encouraging readers to donate to their local shelters. Here’s an excerpt:

With budgets tight for many families, it’s important that donors get the best bang for their buck. In the charity field, you’ll find two approaches: Awareness campaigns to bring an important issue to light (the bird’s eye view) and hands on work (the nitty gritty).

Awareness is a good first step for an issue of which few people are aware and many are affected. Awareness won’t deliver a solution, though.

Having worked in hands on animal care for more than 30 years, I’ve learned the best way to help pets is to give to groups that do the most hands-on work. And that means local groups.

National groups can provide awareness, but there’s already widespread knowledge about pets and issues of animal welfare. Almost 60 percent of households keep pets, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. People know about spaying and neutering and adopting from shelters.

Read the full piece here.