During these uncertain times, when most of us have to tighten our belts and prepare for the unexpected, many of our City's pets find themselves being surrendered by their family who can no longer afford to care for them. This past week alone, we are averaging five surrenders. Our small, tight-knit team composed of 8 caregivers who work seven days a week to care for over 150 animals daily are standing strong through this COVID pandemic. Through it all, they come in day in and day out with only the animals in mind. Now we are reaching out to all of you for an extra nudge to help us with donations so we can buy more crates and supplies for fosters. We want to assure anyone stepping up to foster for us that we have everything they need to take care of our beloved cats and dogs while they wait for their forever homes. The more animals out of the shelter, the more time and resources staff can spend on the ones still waiting for their chance to be a part of a permanent family. Please help us by donating today.
As the only open-admission, No-Kill shelter within the City of St. Louis, CARE STL always has its doors open to our community. We provide second chances for our City's most at-risk animals and offer support, hope, and resources for our most underserved populations of people. This is our story, this is who we are, and this is why we need your help spreading the care. Our job, as the nonprofit managing the shelter operations for our City’s Animal Care and Control shelter, changes every day. We could tell you a graphic, horrific story about an injured, abused animal who came to us in near-death condition, but because we want to charge the abuser most of these animals are not promoted on our social media until we find the abuser. We have types of intakes that are healthy or injured; middle-aged or young; 4-legged, crocodilian, rodent, or fowl (and then some other fun wild card species); those with behavioral needs or perfectly behaved. We take all these animals out from an abuser's hand, heal them physically and mentally until we find a perfect, loving forever home. We care for them all as if they were our own, and we give them a second chance they so much deserve.
One of the most common questions we get is, “Where do all these animals come from? There can't really be this many stray, neglected, and abandoned animals in our City.” The reality of our rescue world is this: yes, there are simply this many homeless animals in the City of St. Louis, and they come into our care in a multitude of ways. It’s not pretty, it’s often heartbreaking and tragic, and we grieve for those who were lost before reaching our care, but this is the reality of our shelter.
Sometimes animals bite or accidentally get loose from their homes; they're victims of crime and abuse along with their owners; they're struck by cars or other vehicles and left for dead on the side of the road, and their bodies are brought to us; wildlife runs or flies into a citizen's home, and they're brought to us for disposal; they're abandoned on the streets or left behind in vacant buildings to fend for themselves when they’re no longer wanted; they're surrendered to our shelter by their owners who can't or don't want to care for them anymore; all these animals and more are who we serve. Sometimes their stay with us is short when they have owners who love and care about them and desperately want them back, and we celebrate those reunions; sometimes their stay with us is a bit longer due to animal cruelty investigation cases when they're the target of abuse, cruelty, and extreme neglect or if they need some specialized behavioral rehabilitation until they can be safely placed in a forever home. These are CARE's animals. We provide the most needed medical care and love on a limited budget.