Hoopeston’s animal shelter offers to pay medical bills, food, adoption fee

HOOPESTON, Ill. (WCIA) — The Hoopeston Area Rescue Team is beginning a program that they hope will help more animals at their shelter find a forever home.

Through the Legacy Foster Program, HART will make it completely free for owners to adopt certain dogs at the shelter. 17 are eligible, and the shelter will waive adoption fees. Then, they’ll pay the animal’s medical bills their entire life. Through the program, the shelter also offers free food and crates if needed.

Amy Buttram, the volunteer coordinator, said this has been in the works for about a year. They wanted to do something for the dogs that can sometimes be trickier to adopt.

“It gets our animals out of here that have been here for the longest,” she said. “All they’ve known is shelter life. They haven’t learned how to sleep on a couch, or on the carpet. They haven’t really learned how to be around a family.”

It all starts with filling out a regular application online . You have to note that you are interested in one of the 17 dogs that are part of the program.

To see a list of eligible dogs, check out HART’s Facebook page and apply to adopt one of these dogs at hartshelter.org .

Cats are not yet part of the Legacy Foster Program, but HART has 73 available for adoption at this time.

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