Each year, approximately 6.3 million new animals are brought to animal shelters across the U.S. So, what happens to these animals during natural disasters?
Although Miami was not directly impacted by Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in Florida on Oct. 9, many individuals assisted shelters in the city during the state of emergency.
Unlike adopting, fostering an animal does not come with the commitment of housing them long-term. Depending on each region’s rules regarding pet fosters, the time period may range from as short as several days to as long as months.
Lindsay Laub, a junior majoring in psychology, decided to foster a dog after viewing a post on the RedCup Miami Instagram, which advocated for people to house an animal during Milton. She fostered Jack, a three-year-old terrier mix.
“I was just going to be alone in my apartment all week, so I thought it might be nice to have a little hurricane buddy and potentially save a dog from getting caught in a flood,” Laub said.
Laub went through Miami-Dade Animal Services to foster Jack.
“It took a little while, but the process was super easy,” she said.“You pick out your dog, wait to register online, and then they just need some personal information to verify it.”
She expressed enjoying her time with Jack and taking him to the dog park when many others were confined to their homes.
“I totally recommend fostering an animal. I had such a fun week with the dog and would’ve kept him if my apartment didn’t charge for pets.” Laub said.
Another shelter run by Miami-Dade County, the Medley Animal Services, was able to foster all 160 dogs in their care during Milton.
“We were doing whatever we could. We really tried to promote on our page to rescue, to not shop, to rescue, to foster,” said Stefania Bada, a volunteer for the shelter, in an interview with Good Morning America.
Even during times of mild weather, fostering an animal can bring benefits to all parties involved.
By fostering, shelters provide the animals they have with more resources, including more individualized attention and a chance to have companionship. These fostered animals also learn how to behave and socialize in a home environment, which makes them up to 14 times more likely to be adopted in the future.
UPurr, an on-campus organization that helps cats in need, also offers the opportunity to foster cats.
“Fostering out animals is a great way to help out the community. It definitely helps get some cats off our hands so we can help more cats on our campus,” said Bianca Cangiano, the Foster Coordinator of UPurr.
Although UPurr did not have many foster cats during Hurricane Milton, the UM community took an interest in fostering cats found by UPurr.
“We’ve had a lot of cat emergencies and have gotten a great response from UM students wanting to foster, which has made fostering so much easier for us,” Cangiano said.
People do not need to have much experience with animals or having a pet to foster one.
“We provide information on how to take care of a cat, things to have and not have and other tips,” Cangiano said.
Laub encourages everyone with the ability to foster an animal to do so to give animals a chance to live in better conditions, even for just a short period of time.
“The conditions in shelters are not great, and the animals spend most of their time in cages,” Laub said.“If you can foster an animal, you would be helping out so much, and it is such a great experience.”
For more information on fostering animals in Miami, visit the Miami-Dade County website to learn about their Foster a Pet Program. In addition, visit UPurr’s Instagram @upurr_miami and UPup (UM’s dog service-training organization) for more ways to get involved with animals on campus.