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Walter Salvari of the Central California SPCA told Bored Panda that dog and animal lovers can find plenty of ways of contributing to any of their local shelters if they’re looking for ways to make the world a tiny bit better one step at a time.

“There is not a ‘best way’ to support a shelter since everyone has different abilities, availability, talents, and resources. However, everyone can help a shelter.”

According to Walter from the CCSPCA, there are a number of things that people can do to help out their local animal shelters, including adopting or fostering pets, donating money or items on the shelter’s wish list, and volunteering.

However, that’s not all: even sharing good stories about pets and shelters online can make a difference. The same goes for reporting abuse and neglect. Walter also stressed that everyone comes out a winner if we all take excellent care of our own pets and share our know-how and experience with our family, neighbors, and community.

For those of you lucky enough to be living in Central California, Walter said that there are no special qualifications to volunteer for the CCSPCA—all you need is the willingness to help. “We have tasks ranging from dog walking and animal socialization to cleaning; customer service to office work; community education presenting to fundraising, and assisting with special events.”

“We have positions for all levels of physical ability and our current volunteers range in age from 8 to 75,” Walter explained that people of all ages are pitching in and helping animals out. “People wishing to volunteer need to complete a volunteer application on our website and attend an orientation/training class before beginning. We also accept groups for one-day projects.”

The CCSPCA (and plenty of other animal welfare organizations) has a screening process for those of us who want to adopt an animal. Walter explained that the CCSPCA checks if the people willing to adopt a pet have had previous experience with the breed they want to give a forever home to.

“We do this to make sure they are breed knowledgeable, and not adopting simply due to the breed being pretty, or for any negative factors. We also like to make sure that if the customer has more than one person living in the household that everyone is in agreement in adopting a pet. We prefer that everyone in the home spends time with the pet to make sure the pet is a good fit in the household.”

He added: “Lastly, we ask if the customer has dogs at home. We recommend doing meet and greets first with the potential adopters in order to not have any issues at home with their beloved pet and our shelter animals.”