As thousands of Americans go outside to carnivals, parades and to view fireworks to celebrate their Independence Day this Fourth of July, some stayed inside animal shelters to keep scared furries’ company.
While it is a good time to celebrate, the four-legged animals are having a hard time with all the noise and fireworks erupting in the sky. Dogs and cats alike are very sensitive to loud noises, so they tend to panic and get frightened.
Luckily, one shelter planned to help the homeless dogs relax during the joyous celebration.
Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (MCACC) has launched ‘Calming the Canines,’ which aims to prove that kindness is patriotic. They launched this new Independence Day tradition last year with more than 300 people helping at the shelter’s two locations in Phoenix, Arizona.
The volunteers soothed the paranoid pups during the celebrations.
“It’s overwhelming to see how the community responded. It really helped spread our message that MCACC is here to help,” Ben Swan, development director of MCACC, said.
Other than taking care of the shelter pup, some of them who volunteered also built a lasting relationship with the furries and decided to adopt them instead.
“Many participants developed lasting relationships with the shelter, returning to provide foster care, adopt a pet or volunteer,” MCACC wrote in a post.
MCACC hopes this new tradition continues on and asks anyone interested to come and bring blankets to sit on, so that any dog or cat can approach them easily and calmly.
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