{"id":57635,"date":"2025-08-30T16:38:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T20:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57635"},"modified":"2025-08-30T16:38:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T20:38:52","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-polk-county-animal-control-needs-a-volunteer-department-inside-the-shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/08\/30\/letter-to-the-editor-polk-county-animal-control-needs-a-volunteer-department-inside-the-shelter\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Editor: Polk County Animal Control needs a volunteer department inside the shelter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Maria Consuelo Barrero<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of this week, the Polk County Animal Control Volunteer Program has been shut down. What will they do next?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Volunteers are the backbone of animal shelters everywhere. They walk dogs, comfort cats, clean kennels, help with adoptions, transport animals to vet care, and provide love and enrichment that animals desperately need. Without volunteers, animals spend long hours in cages without walks, play, or human connection\u2014making them more stressed and less adoptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\ud83d\udc49\" A strong volunteer department would mean happier, healthier animals, more adoptions, and more lives saved.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Polk County Animal Control should open its doors to compassionate community members who want to help. Our animals deserve better, and our community is ready to step up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\ud83d\udce2\" Please share this message, and let\u2019s call on Polk County Animal Control to establish a volunteer program. Together, we can give every animal the chance they deserve<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maria Consuelo Barrero As of this week, the Polk County Animal Control Volunteer Program has been shut down. What will they do next? Volunteers are the backbone of animal… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcLzU0MDQ5MTE4M18xMDE2MTcyOTI4MDk1MzIwMV84NTU3NTIxNjYzMTcxMDg4MjA2X24ud2VicD9maXQ9NjAwJTJDMzA2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTGV0dGVyIHRvIHRoZSBFZGl0b3I6IFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IEFuaW1hbCBDb250cm9sIG5lZWRzIGEgdm9sdW50ZWVyIGRlcGFydG1lbnQgaW5zaWRlIHRoZSBzaGVsdGVyIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.NQODNQ6tMRb5-dw38YvL6d-u812eqAawB2EQW8dpu2UMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57637,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/540491183_10161729280953201_8557521663171088206_n.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[12098],"class_list":["post-57635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","tag-letter-to-the-editor-polk-county-animal-control-needs-a-volunteer-department-inside-the-shelter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57638,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57635\/revisions\/57638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}