SAN MARCOS - A collaboration between the Hays County Community Supervision and Corrections Department, 483rd District Judge Tanner Neidhardt and PAWS Shelter is bringing a pilot program for individuals on probation to earn community service for time spent fostering animals.
This idea, said Neidhardt, came after he was discussing the need for foster families with Leslie Hutson, PAWS Shelter of Central Texas executive director. According to the PAWS website, the organization already works with the Kyle Correctional Center for the Cell Dog Program, which takes shelter dogs to be trained and cared for by approved inmates at the prison. Neidhardt discussed this program further, stating that it works because there are often two individuals inside of a cell that can take care of the dog together. This aspect differs from the Hays County Jail, which has several bunk beds together and is not ideal for the program; thus, the new project serves as an alternative.
The new program, titled Foster for Service, is in partnership with the Hays County Community Supervision and Corrections Department, all of which have expressed their support, with the intention of bringing responsibility to the individuals on probation, as well as giving the dogs a temporaiy home.
According to Jessica Baldassari, deputy director of the CSCD, each individual that fosters an animal will gain 25 hours a week toward their community service hours: “This is not solely earning community service credit ... We think this program will help bring a positive focus in our clients’ lives.”
“We actually have a population of animals that just go into the shelter and go, ‘Wait, you’re putting me in an eight-by-six crate?’ They just don’t feel comfortable. So, if we can get them out into a home with a backyard, a living room and a good couch to lay on, it just makes it that much easier for us to adopt them out,” explained Hutson.
Huston, who has been working with Baldassari, stated that the program will begin slowly to discover what works and what doesn’t work for both the animals and the individuals on probation.
She continued, stating that she doesn’t foresee there being any problems, as, just like every foster family, there will be a PAWS screening that the potential foster parent would have to pass before being given an animal.
'Most of these people are just down on their luck at this point; things aren’t going well for them and to have something that comes in and loves them unconditionally like a dog, maybe it will show them to love back and love more than whatever it is that’s gotten them in that situation,” concluded Neidhardt. “We want people on probation to be successful. Now, they can have man’s and woman’s best friend on that journey to success.”
