An animal shelter is a place where all the stray, abandoned, surrendered or animals are kept and rehabilitated. The animal shelter attempts to find a forever home for the homeless animals and reunite lost pets with their owners. Majority of the animal shelters are populated by cats, dogs and a variety of small animals such as rats, rabbits and mice. Many animal shelters run out of adequate financial resources and space to cater for all of the animals. Sometimes animal shelters are unable to raise additional funds to provide for the increased number of incoming animals where they are left with no choice but to euthanize them. 

PAWS (Paws Animal Welfare Society) is a non-profit animal shelter based in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. This animal shelter was founded in 1987 by a small group of local and expatriate volunteers. PAWS was constructed on a patch of land on the Subang Airport Road through their generosity and imagination. This distinct group of sheds and a courtyard still stands today and currently homes around 400-500 cats and dogs. The animal shelter accepts unwanted pets and stray animals ranging from puppies, adult dogs, kittens and adult cats. PAWS receive the surrender of unwanted dogs and cats which they will vaccinate, deworm, neuter, and put up for adoption. They have hundreds of animals waiting for a forever home. Currently, the PAWS team consists of three office staff, one vet assistant, several part-time veterinarians and seven kennel workers. PAWS is a registered Society under the Registry of Societies of Malaysia that is led by an elected committee. Their organization depends entirely on the generosity of the public through donations or proceeds from charitable events organized and run by volunteers. 

It is not easy to operate and manage an animal shelter because funding is hard to come by. Hence, donations of any kind are always gratefully accepted to alleviate the owner’s financial burdens because it is a selfless act that benefits others which can be provided in various forms such as money, food, good, service or connecting emotionally. The public can also spend their free time by becoming volunteers at the animal shelters. It is about stepping out of their comfort environments and expanding their horizons, strengthening their senses of civic engagement and nationalism. It is also to broaden one’s educational, developmental and social goals. One should be volunteering for the service, not expecting anything in return, and appreciate the fact that the person appreciates your act. 

One of the biggest problems faced by animal shelters is the lack of public awareness. The public are not aware of the way of handling their pets which results in overpopulation. It is quite difficult to get people to properly neuter their pets. The public is also not aware of the services that animal shelters are providing in placing animals into good homes.  

The main objective of this project was to conduct an online community service project with an NGO. Hence, the team had chosen to crowdfund for the organization, PAWS. The main objective of the team is to create awareness where they will be working together with an animal shelter to serve and alleviates the burdens of the owner in various possible ways to improve their way of living. At the same juncture, the team aimed improve the welfare of animals since they were part of the community as well. Therefore, the team would like to start a crowdfund project on Mystartr in order to raise funds to meet the team objective and lighten the owner’s burden. At the same time, the team wants to ensure that the PAWS would be able to operate during and after COVID 19 pandemic as they are playing an important roles on keeping the public free from stray animals which might bring diseases to the public and ensure the safety of public. Moreover, the team would like to change the lives of suffering and neglected animals. The team hope that the continuation of operation for PAWS may instill some good virtue such as kindness and selfishness to the society.