Volunteering with the KC Pet Project

I didn't start the summer intending to save the world. In fact, I planned to spend it much as I always have: doing school. Traditionally, the months of June to August are meant to be spent in restful repose, yet growing up homeschooled, this ritual had a curious way of skipping over me. It wasn't all bad, I guess, it certainly helped to realistically prepare me for impending mature experiences.   

I spent the majority of this summer doing school, an intense eight week college course to be exact. I ended up enrolling in a Service Learning variant of my English class. I assumed this would only entail a bit of volunteering at some point during the semester, adding a bit of spice to an otherwise dull summer of schoolwork. However, as it turned out, the service that my professor intended for us did in fact have quite a bit of learning yoked to it. I ended up being grouped with three strangers and told we had three weeks to do whatever we could to help save animal shelters in the local area.  

I'll be honest, I wasn't all that thrilled about the situation. What exactly were three college students supposed to be able to accomplish in so short a time? Up until this point, we'd never given any thought to this problem, much less how we could possibly deal with and salvage a decent grade for the class. Somehow, we managed a half-decent plan and decent implementation, requiring all of our effort and deliberation. As our understanding of this problem grew, we decided to spend all of our time supporting the Kansas City Pet Project. This support can manifest itself in a plethora of ways, such what we did: mowing the lawns, sewing blankets and walking dogs. But beyond the time-consuming, exertion of physical volunteering, the very act of us being there, doing whatever they needed proved the greatest support.    

In this country, animal shelters provide an invaluable service to our communities by providing our society a safe and effective place for homeless, unwanted and overpopulated creatures, giving them a chance to find new homes and new owners. Simply put, effective animal shelters provide an outlet and place of sanctuary for animals that would otherwise die on the streets. Animal shelters provide an invaluable service to our city, both in terms of civic utility and community enrichment. Commitment to the preservation of animals, much like the preservation of the arts, is an efficient means of encouraging cultural wellbeing

However, as with every sector of society, economic turmoil and the scrambling budgetary compensation that followed has damaged every shelter's ability to fulfill this calling. Shelters like the Kansas City Pet Project are not privately funded: meaning government budgetary tumult is a direct means of disruption for their operations. Despite this, KCPP has recently been recognized with an official No-Kill status by maintaining their 90% Live-Release rate, meaning 9 out of 10 animals that enter their premises leave alive for a new home. This is an astonishing fact when taking into consideration that KCPP is an open admission facility and accepts every animal picked up by Kansas City Animal Control. In fact, the shelter can expect almost two hundred new animals every week, many of which are ill, abused and injured. Though drastically understaffed and under-facilitated and after taking over from previous management whose Live-Release rate was a dismal 40%, this shelter has quickly turned into a guiding light for the No-Kill Kansas City movement.   

There is work still to be done, however: work that cannot be done without the help of people like you and I.  This is the reason that my group spent our small surplus of time to help the Kansas City Pet Project in any way possible. Not because of some higher moral calling or simply to fulfill a school assignment, but instead, we were able to recognize a need within the community and fill it. This trait is one I hope to retain and re-use as I go forward, because, though I didn't intend to save the world this summer, I may have started the ball rolling.

P.S. If you are wanting to get your ball rolling too, KCPP has volunteer orientation every two weeks, see their website for more details.

Josiah Bell, teen blogger