Foster care is no longer a supplemental strategy in animal sheltering. It is essential infrastructure. National data makes this clear, yet many shelters continue to misunderstand, underutilize, or improperly implement foster programs, to the direct detriment of animals, staff, and communities.

According to national data collected and published by Shelter Animals Count, shelters across the United States are facing sustained capacity pressure, longer lengths of stay, and slower outcomes for dogs of all sizes. Foster care is one of the few interventions proven to relieve these pressures while improving animal welfare outcomes, yet implementation remains inconsistent and, in many cases, fundamentally flawed.

What the Data Actually Shows

Using monthly, end-of-month foster counts from January 2023 through December 2024, Shelter Animals Count analyzed foster use across three sectors: government shelters, private shelters, and rescue organizations. The findings are unambiguous.

• Government shelters are steadily increasing their use of foster care.
• Private shelters are relatively flat but trending slightly downward.
• Foster-based rescues are experiencing declining foster capacity.

These numbers reflect dogs actively living in foster homes at a given moment, not simply animals that passed briefly through a foster placement. This distinction matters. It shows real, sustained foster capacity, and it highlights a critical shift: the rescue sector, historically relied upon to absorb overflow, can no longer carry this burden alone.

At the same time, shelters are facing longer lengths of stay across all dog sizes. In 2024, the median length of stay for large dogs reached 20 days, up from 11 days in 2019. Medium dogs increased from 10 days to 18. Small dogs increased from 9 days to 14. These are not marginal changes. They represent systemic slowdown.

Longer stays directly correlate with kennel stress, behavioral deterioration, increased illness, reduced adoptability, higher operational costs, and staff burnout. Foster programs are not optional in this environment. They are one of the only scalable, evidence-based tools available.

The New Jersey Reality

While these trends are national, anyone paying attention knows that in New Jersey the situation has deteriorated even further. Municipal shelters across the state are operating at or beyond capacity, with limited kennel space, staffing shortages, and animals remaining confined for extended periods. Transfers are harder to secure, rescue support is stretched thin, and intake pressures have not eased.

New Jersey shelters are seeing exactly what the national data predicts: longer stays, fewer placement options, and increasing strain on both animals and staff. In this environment, failure to fully implement foster programs is not just inefficient. It is harmful.

Where Shelters Are Failing

Despite overwhelming data, many shelters continue to treat fostering as an emergency overflow option rather than a core operational function. Common failures include:

• Restrictive foster eligibility rules that exclude willing community members 
• Delays in approving foster placements even when animals are declining 
• Lack of staff accountability or dedicated foster coordination 
• Poor communication and support for foster caregivers 
• A culture of control that prioritizes physical custody over animal welfare

These failures are not resource-based. They are decision-based.

Some shelters cite liability, loss of control, or staff workload as reasons to limit fostering. These concerns persist despite decades of evidence showing that structured foster programs reduce, not increase, operational risk. Shelters that resist fostering are not protecting animals. They are prolonging confinement and worsening outcomes.

A Fatal Mistake in the Modern Sheltering World

In today’s sheltering landscape, shelters that have not adopted progressive, community-centered foster protocols are making a dangerous and potentially fatal mistake. The failure to implement flexible, data-driven foster programs can directly cost dogs and cats their lives.

When animals deteriorate in kennels, develop stress-related illness, or become behaviorally unadoptable due to prolonged confinement, the consequences are predictable. Animals are labeled “unmanageable,” “unadoptable,” or “too stressed,” when the reality is that the system failed them. In a sheltering environment already strained by capacity limits and longer stays, the absence of meaningful foster pathways can turn a survivable situation into a fatal one.

This is not hypothetical. It is happening every day.

The Role of Large Dogs and Long-Stay Animals

The data is especially clear for large and long-stay dogs. These animals are disproportionately impacted by extended kennel stays and are the least likely to be adopted quickly without intervention. Foster placements, even short-term ones, significantly increase adoption probability.

Field trips, day fosters, weekend placements, and short-term home stays consistently show dramatic results. Dogs who participate in these programs are multiple times more likely to be adopted. Even one or two nights in a home environment reduces stress, improves behavior, and allows the public to see the dog as an individual, not a kennel number.

This is not anecdotal. It is measurable, repeatable, and documented.

Community Help Is Not the Problem

Shelters often claim they lack community participation. The data says otherwise. When barriers are low and opportunities are clearly communicated, communities respond in large numbers.

As emphasized by leaders at Mutual Rescue, the public wants to help. Low-commitment opportunities such as Dog Day Out programs, temporary fostering, and crisis-response placements consistently succeed because they respect the realities of people’s lives.

The failure lies in shelter reluctance to trust the public and modernize operations.

Crisis Response and Preparedness Failures

Another critical gap is preparedness. Shelters without established foster infrastructure are unable to respond effectively to disease outbreaks, overcrowding emergencies, or natural disasters. Crisis-response fostering cannot be built overnight. It requires advance planning, active foster lists, and normalized placement processes.

Shelters that fail to invest in foster readiness put animals at risk when emergencies inevitably occur.

Length of Stay Is a Management Issue

Length of stay is not merely a market problem or an adoption problem. It is a management problem. Shelters that restrict visibility of animals, delay foster placements, refuse pre-adoption options, or keep treatable animals confined in kennels are actively contributing to longer stays.

Proven strategies exist. Making animals immediately visible, promoting foster and adoption for all eligible animals, allowing medical fosters, and offering foster-to-adopt pathways all reduce length of stay. Shelters that refuse to implement these strategies are choosing institutional comfort over animal welfare.

The Bottom Line

The data is unequivocal. Dogs are staying longer. Foster capacity is shifting. Rescue organizations cannot absorb the load. In New Jersey, the consequences of these failures are already visible inside our shelters.

Fostering saves lives, but only when it is treated as essential infrastructure, not an optional program or a last resort.

Shelters that fail to adopt progressive foster protocols in this new sheltering reality are not merely falling behind. They are making decisions that may cost dogs and cats their lives. The future of humane sheltering depends on leadership willing to act on data, trust communities, and dismantle outdated models. The animals do not have time for institutional hesitation.