Sara Muellerleile

Prof. Neil Joyce

Fieldwork II
June 9, 2021
Community Service: For the Sake of Being Humane

In satisfying the community service requirement for my Master’s program, I stumbled

upon an incredible organization run completely by two young adults out of their home called

“For the Sake of Being Humane”. This young couple has completely turned their home and

property into a full service shelter for stray or discarded pets and are clearly incredibly

passionate for the animals that they come into contact with.

What initially began as attempt to find a new dog for our family after ours had passed

away led me to peruse the Facebook pages of local animal shelters. I happened upon the page of

“For the Sake of Being Humane”, a nonprofit animal rescue located in Fennville, Michigan about

30 minutes from our home. As the Covid-19 pandemic was in full swing here in Michigan during

the spring of 2021, the shelter was in desperate need of supplies and volunteers. I began sending

monetary donations to help with their pleas for food and coverage of veterinary costs and

eventually reached out to the organization to volunteer my time.

My tasks as a volunteer largely included cleaning the puppy areas and kennels. Wow!

This was no small task as those little pups sure do make a mess. It would take the better part of a

day to get through all of the puppy kennels and have them nice and clean, only to be ready to

begin again. In addition to cleaning, I would wash all of the bowls for feeding time and give

baths to any of the puppies with potential adoption meetings. While this was a rewarding

experience to see some of the animals be adopted out, it was also incredibly heartbreaking. It is
unbelievable to hear the stories of some of the animals who had ended up in the shelter and the

kind of horrible lives they had endured before getting here. There was one litter of puppies on

location that was literally found in a trash bag in a dumpster. It is quite amazing how awful

some people can be.

After volunteering with the organization a few times, my family decided to become a

puppy foster home. In doing this, we now have one of the older puppies living with us in our

home. The hope is that she will gain some socialization skills outside of the shelter and become

less fearful as well as learn house/crate training and some basic commands in an attempt to make

her “more adoptable”. The ultimate goal is that she will find a forever home and we will be able

to do this again with another.

The only site for this organization is located on Facebook by searching: “for the sake of

being humane”. Their profile for the site contains the above icon. On the Facebook page you

can find more information about this incredible organization as well as photos of adoptable

animals and links to their donation sites and amazon wish lists. The link provided below will

direct to their membership donation page.

https://www.patreon.com/ForTheSakeRescueFund
A photo of our current foster pup available for adoption