Spread Kindness This Summer: Ways To Help Street Animals Beat the Summer Heat

Are you looking for something to make you feel “happy” this summer? Have you ever tried Altruism? Altruism is “a selfless act to benefit another”. Studies have shown that Altruism stimulates dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin – all the happiness hormones!  Although, you can practice altruism with people like your family, friends, colleagues and strangers. There’s another way you can practice altruism this summer, helping local and street animals in the scorching summer heat as they struggle to survive in our urban environment. Our streets, their home, are designed by humans for humans. Yet, they are inhabited by both of us.

Here are 10 ways for you to boost your happy hormones by helping animals this summer!

Check Under Your Car Before You Move It

As the sun becomes quite strong during the day, many animals seek shade and shelter from the heat under parked cars. Sadly, many get severely injured or even killed when unsuspecting people run them over with their car as they leave their parking space. So, checking under your car by looking or even banging on the hood to make noise, is a life saver. As a side note, while this is true for the summer, you should do this all year round. Animals also seek shelter in the dead of winter under cars.

Make a Summer Shelter

If possible, construct your own summer shelter for the street animals to provide a safe place for them to find shade. Make sure that is out of the way of people’s traffic. Also, try to make it look as presentable as you can, so people don’t complain that it is an eyesore. 

Shout Out and Speak Up

If you find restaurants or shops that allow animals to take shelter in their establishments, you can offer them praise for their acts of kindness. You even offer them a shout out on social media to encourage people to visit them and even encourage other places to do the same. In the same sense, if you find shop owners doing the opposite, or neighbors making a fuss about animals taking shelter in your building lobby, you can try and speak up for the animals. Try to politely convince them to be more tolerant of the animals instead.

Trap/Catch Neuter Return (CNR/TNR)

Many people are reluctant to help street animals because of possible diseases. Solving these issues can help the whole neighborhood become more tolerant to resident animals. It gives you a stronger argument when defending them against people who want to get rid of them. The most humane and effective method of controlling street animal population is through TNR/CNR.

Trap or Catch Neuter Return, is a method where animals are caught and spayed/neutered and vaccinated against rabies and returned back to the same area. A plastic tag is attached to the dog’s ear and the cats have a part of one ear tipped. This way, we can identify that this animal is no longer going to breed, and is vaccinated. Egypt has many local groups that can help you organize TNR/CNR the animals in your area. Also, most vets give a special discount for stray animals.

Provide Clean Water 

Dehydration is one of the biggest dangers of the summer. If you think of it, our street animals’ main source of water is sewage water, soapy leftover water from cleaning or muddy water from irrigation. One of the best ways you can help street animals and our wildlife is by providing sources of clean water for them. You can join a local initiative by KAR (Knowledge On Animal Rescue) called “Bow Egypt” which encourages people to leave out Bowls Of Water for our local animals in the street or on our balconies, by posting a photo of your Bowl of Water to your instagram stories while adding the hashtag #bow_egypt and tagging @thisis_kar. 

Provide Frozen Treats

Freezing some small pieces of food and offering it to street cats and dogs are a great way to help cool them down. Similarly, you can add some ice cubes to the bowls of water you leave out. 

Leave Food Out

Street animals’ main source of food is our rubbish and hunting the smaller animals that feed off that rubbish. They spend so many hours searching in the heat to find piles of trash to eat from it. They hope to find small pieces of leftovers or anything edible. For street animals, food is scarce, unhealthy and often rotten or contaminated. You can save your leftovers for the street animals or buy them pet food.

Treat the Sick

When possible, you can take sick or injured animals to be treated at your local vet and return them or rehome them. Some illnesses can even be treated while they are in the street. Almost all local vets provide discounts or free check ups when you mention that it is a rescue animal.

Rescue and Adopt

Street or “Baladi” cats and dogs make the most amazing pets. Yes, some street animals are better suited for a life outside a home–as they have never been socialized. However, street cats and dogs that have been socialized with humans or kittens and puppies can be adopted and raised as pets in a home. Opening your heart and rescuing a street animal and adding it to your family can be one of the greatest gifts you can give that animal and yourselves! Just ask the millions of people with Baladi pets!

Advocate

Speaking to people, even within your close circle, about helping animals is another great way to help our street animals. If you change just one mind, you have already won! You can even do this by sharing posts about animal welfare on social media–like this one! We don’t live on this planet alone, and thank God we don’t, what a dull place it would be! Giving a little hand to those around us, can make all the difference to them, and to us too.