Groups arrange foster care for military pets

  • Published
  • By Donna Miles
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  Deploying overseas means leaving friends and loved ones behind. For servicemembers with no one to take care of their beloved dog, cat, bird or other pet, it once meant also having to abandon or turn the pet over to a shelter -- never to see it again.

Thanks to two nonprofit groups -- the Military Pets Foster Project and Operation Noble Foster -- servicemembers can arrange foster care for their pets while they are gone.

The Military Pets Foster Project, a nonprofit group founded by animal lover Steve Albin, has placed about 15,000 pets in foster homes throughout the United States while their owners serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Operation Noble Foster, which specializes in foster homes for cats, has found temporary homes for about 25 military cats a month since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, founder Linda Mercer said.

Mr. Albin and Ms. Mercer said they established their groups shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That is when they learned that thousands of servicemembers had been forced to give up their pets when they deployed to Operation Desert Storm more than a decade earlier.

"What kind of morale builder is that?" Mr. Albin asked. "Does it mean that to serve, you have to be willing to put your best friend to sleep?"

Since launching his group, Mr. Albin estimates that it has saved as many as 150,000 pets from being abandoned or turned over to shelters, where pets not quickly adopted often are euthanized. Although dogs and cats are the most common pets in need of foster homes, he said his group has also placed ferrets, rabbits, horses, lizards, snakes and other "exotics," including a pot-bellied pig.

Mr. Albin said he matches pets in need of foster care with appropriate foster homes and requires those involved in the arrangement to sign a foster agreement.

Both Mr. Albin and Ms. Mercer said they are impressed by the outpouring of support they receive from people willing to provide foster care for pets while servicemembers deploy supporting the war, serve tours where they cannot take their pets, or even ship off to basic training.

"People are opening up their hearts and their doors to help the people of the military," Mr. Albin said. "It's a patriotic gesture of thanks."

Mark Delman from Parker, Colo., signed up through Operation Noble Foster to provide a foster home for five cats owned by a military family currently stationed in Germany. Mr. Delman said he encourages others to open their doors as well.

"These people are keeping us safe and free, and shouldn't have to give up their beloved pets to do so," he said. "Offering a foster home is a way of saying 'thanks.' I tell people not to hesitate to do it."

Mr. Albin encourages servicemembers in need of foster care for their pets to give the groups as much notice as possible of their upcoming deployment so they can find a suitable home.