March Madness at the Foothills Animal Shelter in Golden has nothing to do with college basketball.
Instead, its about finding homes for all the small mammals, reptiles and fish that looked so appealing when people bought them but soon became a burden they didn’t want to bear.
The event, March Mammal Madness, sheds light on a couple of animal shelter realities.
First, it reminds us that many shelters, including Foothills, have long been repositories for much more than cats and dogs. About 1,000 of these smaller animals were among the 9,000 that passed through the Foothills shelter’s doors last year.
Second, it underscores how careless people can be when they acquire small animals without fully understanding what it will mean to care for them.