Animal shelter pleads for more foster homes

Montego Bay Animal Haven says it is proving difficult to find foster homes for the animals.

Tammy Browne, director of the shelter, said that the issue is sometimes a matter of life and death.

"We have been trying to do fostering for the past eight years and we have had a few fosters who have been amazing, and those puppies and cats have all gone overseas into home. In some situations, it is a matter of life and death because if an animal isn't socialised enough and we cannot safely rehome it, we sometimes have to euthanise it," Browne said.

"Recently we had a little mommy dog named Princess that was heavily pregnant, and I was literally thinking that this is going to be the first dog that we have to euthanise that is pregnant, because we didn't have anywhere for her to go. But, out of the blue, one of our old-time foster people took her on and she has now house-trained the puppies and the mother. So that little family of five has been saved because of one person," she added.

In 2021, the shelter collaborated with Save Our Scruff, a nonprofit animal rescue organisation in Canada, to send 144 terriers to various homes in the North American country.

Montego Bay Animal Haven, through its social media pages, has been appealing to members of the local public for foster homes, but Browne said their pleas have mostly fallen on deaf ears.

"Even though we are offering to pay for everything, including food and medication, nobody wants to do it. We have to be turning animals away because we do not have the space or funds to look after them. Our main concern has to be the animals we already have in our care," she said.

Browne added that taking an animal into the home isn't about just providing shelter, but it also assists greatly with their socialising skills. This, she said, creates the path for a smooth transition into a permanent home.

"What fostering does is to climatise the animal with different situations. If we keep animals, we have to keep them in kennels and they don't get socialise. So then it makes it harder for dogs, because they don't get friendly with people, as they don't get used to the sound of cars, washing machines, televisions, and stuff like that," she said.