Program Seeks Toys for Shelter Animals
Animals kept at two Ventura County shelters may soon be frolicking with new Christmas presents.
Phyllis Daugherty, head of the Los Angeles-based Toys for Pets, is working with pet stores around the county to encourage the purchase of toys for animals in shelters run by the Ventura Humane Society and the Ventura County Animal Regulation Department.
Daugherty’s pet-store displays urge pet owners to buy a toy for a shelter animal when they buy for their own animals.
Norma Worley of the Animal Regulation Department said her shelter received about two dozen toys last year for cats and dogs.
“It gets pretty boring sitting in the cage,” she said. “This gives them something to play with.”
Worley and Daugherty warned against the spontaneous giving of animals as gifts at the holidays. Most shelters do not allow adoptions in the days just before Christmas because not all pet recipients are ready to be responsible owners.
“It’s so people won’t just snatch up a pet and then it ends up back in the shelter,” Daugherty said.
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