How to Give Back to Dogs and Pet Organizations in Need

As we enter November and the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, it’s commonly a time to reflect on the things we are grateful for. If you’re a pet owner, then you’re obviously grateful for the many ways our pets bring joy and companionship to our lives but there are so many other animals that don’t get the love and attention our own pets are fortunate to have. For this reason, we wanted to inspire fans of The Combine Dog to think about giving during the month of November to non-for-profits that go out of their way to make a difference in animals’ lives.

Your Local Animal Shelter - This will always be number 1 on our list of places to donate to that positively impact pets. Perhaps you’ve adopted your own dog from your local shelter so it should be easy to connect with them and find out their needs. Shelters are always open to receiving monetary donations but maybe this year think about purchasing food, toys or even donating your time to care for animals, like taking a dog for a walk at your local shelter. Be sure to always call or check the website of the shelter so you can find out if there are any restrictions or specific needs to consider. Not sure which shelter to reach out to, this site compiled a list of shelters by state.

Helping Dogs that Help People - Our second favorite charitable animal organizations are the types of nonprofits that are not only changing the lives of dogs but that are at the same time, impacting society on a greater scale. The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) is a highly rated organization that not only rescues dogs but then they train the dogs and partner them with firefighters and other first responders to help locate people in wreckage of disasters. With the numerous natural disasters in the news lately, we’ve all seen what a critical role search and rescue dogs can have.

Merlin’s Kids is another organization that similarly transforms the lives of dogs and people. They rescue dogs from shelters, train and give them a purpose to their lives of children with autism and other special needs. Other charities that similarly train and support dogs that help people are:

• Guide Dogs for the Blind

• Patriot Paws Service Dogs

• Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs

Lesser Known Organizations - Lastly, we love finding out about non-profits that are doing important work with animals but that may not get the attention like some of the bigger organizations with big media budgets. Here are a few we discovered that are worth your consideration for support:

• Rescue Animal MP3 Project - This organization harnesses the power of music to help destress animals in shelters.

• Muttville - Has touching stories of how they’ve cared for and supported senior pets, including a compassionate “Fospice” for terminally ill senior dogs.

• Hemopet - In a beautiful way this non-profit has discovered a way for dogs to help other dogs by creating a national blood bank for dogs, saving the lives of thousands of dogs.

We hope these charitable dog-loving nonprofits have inspired you to want to extend the love and care you have for your pets to others out there. We’d love to know about an organization that you support that we may not have heard of. Please share in the comments!