ANDERSON — The animal shelter survives on the work of volunteers, according to co-directors Maleah Stringer and Heather Ridenour.

Volunteers perform tasks ranging from cleaning out litter boxes and petting animals to helping organize community outreach events and administrative tasks.

Ridenour said the shelter holds a volunteer orientation night on the third Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. The meeting is held at the animal shelter, located at 613 Dewey St., Anderson. Volunteers must be 16 years old unless they have parental supervision.

Amy Williams, volunteer coordinator for the animal shelter, said the facility could also use help in transporting animals to rescues and adopted homes out of state.

Since all shelter animals are listed on www.petfinder.com, out-of-state adoptions are becoming more common, she said.

Ridenour said she has approved many out-of-state adoptions since taking over the shelter in January, Williams said. “She does adoptions from miles away, because Petfinder makes that possible.”

Although volunteering at the shelter is crucial, fostering animals is a sure way to get animals out of the shelter and into comfortable home environments.

Jenny Ellis is the foster care coordinator for Anderson Animal Care and Control.

In the foster care program, volunteers agree to take an animal, or litter of animals into their home for a temporary stay while the shelter deals with overcrowding issues or until the animal is ready for adoption.

Often times, Ellis said, foster parents will take sick animals into their homes in an effort to promote healing outside of the loud, and sometimes scary, shelter environment.

The shelter is responsible for the cost of medications, but Ellis said the shelter would like individuals to sponsor the foster care program to reduce the cost to the shelter.

Those interested in becoming a foster parent should visit the shelter and fill out an application.

Ellis said volunteers living in rental units must consent to landlord notification to ensure that the animal is allowed to be in the volunteer’s dwelling.

Those who cannot volunteer or foster animals are encouraged to purchase Kuranda beds for the shelter dogs.

Kuranda beds are cots that raise dogs from the floor in order to give them a more comfortable rest.