Bored Panda reached out to the Coulee Region Humane Society to learn more about this initiative. They revealed that they did this fundraiser for the first time back in 2019 after another shelter shared the idea on Facebook. "It was a huge success, so we decided to bring it back again this year."
The shelter shared that the reaction they get from people who have commissioned a poorly drawn pet portrait is overwhelmingly positive. "Everyone loved their drawings this time and have a lot of fun sharing the results with their friends on social media. We also had a handful of people this year tell us they came back to the comments a few times a day to see the new drawings because of how entertaining they were."
The shelter raised just over $1,000 in the few days they were accepting submissions, "which we think is great given the size of our community."
"It was also a huge moral boost for our staff who were drawing the photos, so that was a bonus. Unfortunately, the fundraiser is now closed, but we hope to make it an annual thing."
"We are currently in what we call our 'slow season' which is the period before the weather gets warmer, stray animals start roaming more frequently, and we get a seemingly endless amount of kittens that come into our care. Right now, we have 97 animals in our care," the Coulee Region Humane Society shared.
If someone were interested in contributing to animals' care at the Coulee Region Humane Society, here are a few ways you could do so:
Monetary donations allow the shelter to freely use the funds to care for the animals in the way that they need at the moment, whether that is food, enrichment, or emergency medical care. The shelter also accepts item donations and has a wishlist of the most needed items available on their website.
"People can also help by signing up to foster animals. We put animals in foster care for a variety of reasons. Some need to heal after surgery, some are shy and need help with socialization, and some have just been here so long that we need to get them out of the shelter and into a home, even if it’s just temporary. Foster families also help create space for new animals to come into our care. We do not euthanize for space, so there will be times during the summer when we are above capacity and have to house cats in wire crates. Foster homes help alleviate the stress that causes to the cats and opens up space to help more animals."
"Adopting an animal from our shelter is pretty simple. Once a potential adopter has chosen an animal they are interested in, we have them fill out the application. Our staff then processes the application, and once it’s approved, one of our care staff will call the adopter to do counseling on the animal's health and behavior history. If the adopter feels confident after counseling has been completed, they are asked if they would like to schedule an appointment to meet the animal before adoption or just move forward with scheduling an appointment to sign adoption papers. It’s about a 50/50 split between adopters choosing to meet the animal prior to adoption and those who move forward with paperwork without meeting."
