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Adopt One, Save Two: Animal Ark, a No-Kill Shelter

Animal-Shelters-charityAnimals deserve comfort, love, soft blankets, whatever treats make them happy, families—and at the very least, life. Thankfully, Animal Ark and similar organizations work to help companion animals neglected, lost or left behind.

Our latest Giving Program recipient works to rescue and re-home Minnesota’s lost and homeless companion animals.

Why Adopt from a No-Kill Shelter

A lot of people believe that adopting from a kill shelter is more impactful because it saves an animal from certain death and that the no-kill shelter’s animals are “safe.” In their latest newsletter, Animal Ark addresses these misconceptions.

“Adopting from a kill shelter helps keep that establishment in business so the needless practice of killing healthy animals just continues. We have limited resources and limited space so adopting our animals is a literal life-saver because it allows us to pull animals out of the aforementioned high-risk scenarios. Adopting from the kill shelters won’t save the animals already gone.”

It’s a sobering reality—if no-kill shelters don’t have space to take additional animals, they can’t rescue the ones in the kill shelters.

How to Help

Animal Ark runs on the kindness of others. You can make a monthly gift so this wonderful organization can keep doing good work.

What donations provide:

  • $10 provides a vaccine
  • $50 will spay/neuter
  • $100 is food and water for one month

If you live in the area, you can also volunteer or adopt an animal. The beautiful cat in the photo is Bengie and he’s listed as available for adoption, along with a lot of other cats and dogs.

In general, you can help no-kill shelters by fostering, donating supplies or even signing up (in some places) to cuddle or walk the animals.

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Compassion Day at Pasado’s Safe Haven

Group3-Pasados (1) Cropped-01-1Pig oinks. Donkey brays. Pony whinnies. As an animal-friendly office, we’re pretty used to dogs (and sometimes cats) running a bit amuck, but a few weeks ago we spent our workday with animals of a different sort (or snort).

Our crew used a few hours from our paid time-on benefit at Pasado’s Safe Haven, an animal sanctuary sprawling over 85-acres in Sultan, Washington. Named after a beloved donkey who was sadly tortured and killed by a group of teenage boys, Pasado’s mission is to end animal cruelty. The organization provides rehabilitation, housing and kindness to neglected, abused and discarded animals.

Pasado’s also advocates for better animal protection laws and encourages the public to make choices that will abate cruelty:

  • Reduce or eliminate meat and dairy consumption. As more people forgo meat, more lives are saved. According to the Pasado’s brochure, “from 2007-2014 nearly 400 million fewer animals were killed for food.”
  • Adopt, don’t shop for all animals, including egg-laying chickens. See some of the animals up for adoption.
  • Spay and neuter pets.
  • Look for the leaping rabbit symbol on cosmetics and household products to ensure it was not tested on animals.

Blonde-Goat-Pasados

We made new friends while touring the grounds. Priscilla, the potbelly pig greeted us by pushing her snout into our hands. (She has since found her forever home.) We snuggled kittens in Kitty City and played with pups in Dog Town. We gave gregarious goats Gary and Chloe behind-the-ear scratches and also met a pair of six-month-old sows with a penchant for untying shoelaces. A staff member explained that at six months, these wonderful creatures would typically be headed to slaughter. Instead, they were rooting around an expansive enclosure in bright afternoon sunlight, happy as can be.

After the tour, it was time to dig in and work. Pasado’s, a nonprofit with a small staff needs volunteers to help maintain the grounds. We pulled weeds and clipped blackberry branches, cleaned out the healing barn and spiffed up the welcome center. Messy work, but the hours flew by and we even got to revisit Kitty City for a second round of cat cuddles.

Our Compassion Day came to a close too quickly and we were sad to leave. The animals we met remain fresh in our minds and some of us have since changed habits to diminish animal cruelty. We’re sure we’ll return, as there’s always more work to be done.

Thank you Pasado’s for introducing us to your very special residents.

 

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