If you want to give animals in need of hope โ or possibly a home โ for the holidays, consider a donation to Hope Animal Shelter and/or its affiliated organization, Hope Fosters. Hope Animal Shelter, Tucsonโs first no-kill shelter, has evolved during the past 15 years into an animal sanctuary that houses 60 cats and dogs.
โIt is hard in this environment to raise funds, and we have to differentiate ourselves from other shelters in town. We want to let people know that we are completely a no-cage shelter and that animals live in a home environment, so it is no hardship for them to live here if they do not have a home. They have all the creature comforts of home here,โ said founder Susan Scherl.
The shelter features an outdoor โcatioโ for cats and large home-like rooms for the dogs with indoor/outdoor access along with a 360-square-foot outdoor yard. Hope Fosters, which operates under the umbrella of Hope Animal Shelter, provides foster and medical care to seven dogs.
โWe have a partnership and we work in conjunction with each other to try to save as many animals as we can. Between our shelter and our foster program, many of our animals are still adoptable,โ said Scherl.
Scherl said 2020 has been a trying year for everyone and that many people donโt consider that the pandemic has put additional strains on animal-related nonprofits.
โIt is hard to say during COVID, but we want to remind people that many people who live alone have animals. God forbid, if something were to happen to those people, there may not be anyone to care for the animals, so people can reach out to us and we can work something out. Someone has to be thinking about animals during this crisis as well,โ said Scherl.
