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MURRAY — Griffin Bonacci smiled as he watched his 16-year-old daughter, Allexis, cuddle a tabby cat Friday at the Humane Society of Utah.
Meanwhile, 30 of Allexis Bonacci's classmates were off doing the same — comforting, grooming and playing with the many homeless cats, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs at the shelter.
It was a service project Allexis organized through her online school, Utah Connections Academy, to demonstrate to her peers the importance of donating time to a community cause by helping to keep animals happy and healthy while they await adoption.
"I'm definitely proud of her," Griffin Bonacci said. "But I'm not surprised. I've tried to instill service in her (for) her entire life."
From a young age, Allexis has helped her father with an annual tradition: holding a clothing drive for the homeless, he said. Service has always been important to him, Bonacci said, having come from a family that has experienced financial hardship.
That's why he's proud to see Allexis organize a service project of her own, he said.
"She's on the right track," Bonacci said. "It's what I try to do with my clothing drive: Get people involved. Pay it forward, right?"
Allexis said she'd volunteered at the shelter before, so she'd hoped to show her classmates how spending a few minutes petting a cat or walking a dog could brighten an animal's day.
"A lot of people donate money," she said. "You see ads everywhere — donate money here, donate money there. Don't get me wrong, donating money is good, but spending your time, I think, is worth more than that."
When River Gentilezza, 17, saw Dorothy the Chihuahua standing with her front paws against the glass of her kennel, she couldn't resist picking her up.
"I love this," she said. "They have souls. We need to treat them like they're human."
Deann Shepherd, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Utah, said the shelter encourages volunteers to walk the dogs, groom the cats and interact with the other animals to help keep them happy, socialized and adoptable.
"It can be a stressful situation for any animal to be here, so it's great when volunteers can spend time comforting the animals, especially some of our longer residents," Shepherd said. "We can have cats here for weeks or months. So people coming in and engaging with them helps them stay not only physically healthy but also emotionally healthy."
The Humane Society's Murray shelter typically houses 300 to 500 stray animals at a time, she said.
According to the shelter's website, the Utah Humane Society took in nearly 12,000 cats and dogs in 2015. About 70 died while at the shelter, and 1,000 were euthanized. Nearly 11,000 were adopted, transferred to another agency or returned to their owners.
Shepherd applauded Allexis' efforts to involve her peers, saying Humane Society officials believe educating younger generations will help long-term animal welfare.
"A lot of the issues we run into with animal abuse and neglect is mostly out of ignorance," she said. "If at a young age they're taught to have empathy and care for other living things, we hope in the future it will help prevent neglect and homelessness."
