“We have so many dogs that need foster homes,” FOMA and Adoption Coordinator Jana Hernandez said Saturday. “We didn’t have anyone showing up today to sign up as a host family.”

When the shelter reaches capacity, at which it regularly remains, FOMA’s adoptive parents step in to bring the additional dogs and cats into their homes, allowing the shelter to accommodate more homeless or stranded animals and avoid distress. to be forced to euthanize the animals to free up space.

The shelter currently has about 80 dogs and 34 cats that need to be adopted or placed.

FOMA has partnerships with other animal rescue organizations across the United States, who will retrieve animals from Marshall and relocate them to the northern United States, where pet homeless people are not a crisis and where potential pet owners are still looking to adopt.

“If we can’t find foster homes, or get these dogs adopted or transported up north, some of these dogs will die,” said FOMA member Peggy McCreary. “It’s a sad reality. It’s because of what people in this field do and don’t do. They raise their animals, and then the undesirables end up dumped here. They also don’t neuter their pets, which causes overcrowding and these animals end up here, and if we can’t find them homes, adopt them, or transport them, they could be euthanized.

FOMA’s foster care system has rescued, on average, about 300 dogs a year, Hernandez said.

FOMA works to educate the public about the need to sterilize pets, in an effort to reduce the area’s high population of homeless and unwanted animals.

FOMA is also looking for additional foster parents to foster animals until transportation can be arranged or until adoptions can be facilitated. FOMA helps the foster family cover the cost of food and veterinary services while the foster parent cares for the animal.

Most FOMA foster parents keep puppies for about three weeks until they can be vaccinated and transported north, but some adult dogs might be in foster care longer.

In an effort to increase declining adoption rates, FOMA will host an adoption voucher event July 22-24, with a grant from the Best Friends organization. The vouchers will reduce the cost of adopting a cat from the Marshall Shelter to just $20, and the cost of adopting a dog will be free with the voucher. Animals will also come with a $70 voucher to be neutered or neutered at a nearby veterinarian.

FOMA is also currently seeking donations to continue being able to help fund the cost of foster parents as they provide food and veterinary services.

Those interested in registering as a FOMA foster parent and fostering a homeless animal in need should complete the foster application on the FOMA website at www.friendsofmarshallanimals.org.

Hernandez said FOMA only has two rules for potential foster parents to follow: their own personal pets must be vaccinated and their personal pets must be spayed or neutered.

Potential adoptive parents who complete the foster application and meet both FOMA rules can usually even select an animal to bring home on the same day.