BILLINGS— Billings animal shelters are in need of foster families to care for pets during the holiday season.
Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter (YVAS) is asking for families to foster animals from Dec. 24 to 27.
Watch to see shelter animals:
“I think we've had anywhere from 20 to 30-ish foster families sign up. We have way more animals that need to go out into foster homes, but we've had a pretty decent amount,” said YVAS community engagement coordinator Izzy Zalenski.
According to Zalenski, there are multiple reasons for the need.
“As well as having less staff, we also have more animals, which can result in burnout for a lot of our staff. For a lot of our animals… it can be an uncomfortable environment,” said Zalenski.
“Maybe somebody got their kid like a kitten for Christmas, and it just didn't work out. Now it's a little bit older, and they kind of changed their minds about said animal,” she added.
YVAS moved to a warehouse at Lionheart Cannabis this year after a drug incineration mishap filled the original building with smoke and forced them to find a temporary shelter.
“It really has been quite the transition going from a building made to house animals to kind of an empty canvas that we had to make our own over these past couple of months with not much,” said Zalenski.
Many people in the Billings community have stepped up, including foster parent Alicia Cowen, whose family started fostering five years ago.
“I think we're coming close to 200 animals that we've fostered in that amount of time. We tend to only do cats and kittens, but we have done a couple puppies here and there,” she said.
Cowen said she has fostered animals, such as a cat, over the holiday season.
“There was an elderly cat that we had last year that got to come and hang out with us for the holidays and just being a cozy home instead of a kennel,” she said.
“I think that… the program is really helpful just to give the shelter staff an additional time off with their families,” she added.
People can click here for the YVAS “Home for the Holidays” application.
YVAS is just one of the shelters looking for foster families over the holidays.
Help for Homeless Pets, which has reached full capacity, is also looking for people to take pets into their home.
“There's families that want to go on vacation right now, so there's a big need for fosters right now, but not enough fosters,” said Help for Homeless Pets Manager Rushanna Nadvornik.
“With YVAS going through what they went through, we are trying to help them as much as we possibly can and trying to help the community as well. So, we are trying to fit as many in as we can,” she added.
The shelter is also welcoming adoptions, which come with an adoption fee.
“The adoption fee of the animal, whether it's a cat, a rabbit, a dog, covers the spay and neuter and all vaccinations,” said the shelter’s treasurer Liliana Klein.
The shelter allows adoptive families to have pets in their homes for a two- or three-day trial before making a permanent decision.
“We are at capacity, but we are always trying to make room and make it as comfortable as possible with the resources that we have,” said Nadvornik.
