Thinking about adding a pet to your household? JoEllyn Klepacki is Director of Education at the Humane Society of Missouri and has some advice for you to consider first.
"There are so many things to keep in mind when you're adding an animal to your family," Klepacki says.
"You want to think about time commitment, number one. How much time does my family have to give to this being that we're bringing in to the family?
Then of course, the cost associated with the care of the animal, thinking about their needs."
"Also, their lifespan is something that sometimes people don't think about. Like, a lot of people don't realize that birds can live up to 70, 80 years old."
"Thinking about their specialized care, for example, we have a ball python in our classroom, who requires a heat source, so something that a lot of people don't think about is if you have a pet that you're caring for that relies on some type of electricity for their care, whether it might be a filter in a fish tank or a heat source for a reptile or an amphibian, you have to make sure that you're thinking about that like when your power goes out, you know, what is your emergency plan for the animals in your care?
And then also just the energy level in your home like what is what is your vibe?"
Think about how the kids can help.
"You want them to be part of the care because they're learning about how what it's like to care for someone else and that nurtures their empathy and their sense of compassion and kindness and helps them nurture the bond."
The teams at the Humane Society can help you with a dog or cat. They know the personalities and needs of the animals waiting for homes and can match you up. But what about, say, bunnies?
"A lot of people have misconceptions about rabbits, like their personality and their needs. They have very specialized needs and so and oftentimes people think they're great pet for kids, and a lot of times rabbits, because they are prey animals, they're fearful, you know, of loud sounds and quick movements and things that kids normally have. So you know that's something that we want to just make sure they have an understanding about how we need to behave around them."
And Snakes? "Definitely ball pythons are pretty calm, and corn snakes."
Their farm animal sanctuary is in Union where you'll find 65 acres of horses, pigs, goats and donkeys.
If you've done your research and think you're not ready for a pet, you can always come to the Humane Society and read to the animals, or Kids for Critters Camp. Or you can always foster...
"We have a very robust foster program for puppies and kittens. Traditionally that's usually what we fostered but now we have an amazing program, an enrichment foster program. So it's animals who are identified in our shelters by our behavior teams who are team members that work in the behavior department who realize that there's some animals that are not doing so well in the shelter environment and might need a little bit of extra support or care in some way.
And then they create something like what's similar to like a child's IEP, like almost like an individualized behavior program for them, and provide a little bit extra support and that oftentimes involves placing them into a foster home. And then, we have foster families who specialize in our animals who just need a home environment instead of being in a kennel."
