Below are some ways to get on board with this, and why this is so important for pet businesses.

Partner with Pet Shelters

This is the obvious one and many pet shops - from big box stores to small mom and pop operations - are increasingly partnering with area animal shelters to offer pets for adoption, as opposed to selling pets for profit.

PetSmart, for one, has been doing this for a long time, particularly with cats and kittens, through its non-profit PetSmart Charities animal welfare organization.

I know of a number of smaller stores that offer in-store adoption events on a regular basis. One store I know of focuses on offering purebred dogs for adoption by partnering with groups that rescue specific breeds.

Smaller stores would do well to offer small exotic pets for adoption. There's a pet store in my area that has rescued guinea pigs for adoption, for example.

This is a great idea for a number of reasons.

For one, as more and more people are opting to adopt, this helps to facilitate the process and enables pet retailers to build a strong customer base in the process.

When someone adopts an animal from a retail operation, they will be more likely to patronize that store to purchase products for their pet in the future.

Furthermore, an increasing number of towns and municipalities have passed ordinances that ban the sales of pets for profit in retail stores in an effort to crack down on puppy mills and other mass animal breeding operations.

Otherwise, this is a great way to give back to one's community. So this just makes sense from a business and altruistic perspective.

Collect Donations to Help Shelter Pets

This is another popular trend among retailers and pet products makers.

The PetSmart in my region uses keypads for debit and credit card payments that ask customers if they would like to donate to shelters when they make purchases.

I patronize a couple of independent stores that ask customers if they would like to round off their purchases to the nearest dollar as a shelter donation.

Donate Pet Products

Meanwhile, lots of companies now donate product to shelter.

In January 2014, Bionic Pet Products, which makes dog chew toys, announced that the company was donating 300 Bionic Balls and 300 Bionic Bones to the Humane Society of Los Angeles, PAWS Chicago, Atlanta Humane Society and Humane Society of Pennsylvania.

"Giving back in any way we can and supporting shelters and dogs in need is extremely important to us," said Bionic Pet Products Founder Steve Luhrs. "We are thrilled to be able to provide these shelters and dogs in need with a little extra joy and entertainment this season."

PetSmart also does this, by asking customers to purchase toys to donate to shelter pets.

Pet Food and Other Donations Are a Big Help

A great many pet food makers have launched programs to help shelter pets.

Halo Spot's Stew, which is co-owned by comedian Ellen DeGeneres, started the Halo Pet Foundation for that purpose.

In addition to sponsoring pet adoptions at Petco, each year during the holidays the company partners with Freekibble.com, an organization that helps to feed homeless animals and supports a variety of animal welfare causes, to donate meals to shelter pets.

Then there's Los Angeles-based Dog For Dog (previously FreeHand), which donates one pet food item to a shelter for each item sold.

In addition, a number of small pet shops in my region host pet food drives for shelters during the holidays, whereby they encourage customers to buy food from their stores that they then donate to area shelters.

Meanwhile, Found Animals, a privately funded non-profit organization that aids homeless pets through a variety of initiatives such as adoption, low cost spay and neuter, free micro chipping and other programs points out that there are other types of donations that shelters always need:

• Cat litter
• Towels and blankets
• Newspapers

Pet retailers can further help by featuring adoptable pets on their social media pages.

How Pet Groomers Can Help Shelter Pets

A lot of pet groomers donate their time to animal shelters where they perform their services for free on homeless pets. And great many pet grooming and general industry trade shows host makeover events for shelter pets to render them more appealing to prospective adopters.

For example, there are Rescue Rodeos held at SuperZoo, the Atlanta Pet Fair and Ontario Dog Groomers Association's All About Pets Show, the National Rescue Roundup Invitational which was set to debut at the 2014 Groom Expo, the Forever Home Rescue Challenge held at the National Association of Professional Creative Groomers Professional Grooming Rally and others.

These are competitions during which groomers vie for prizes and awards for themselves and shelters, which also affords the pets and rescue groups greater public visibility.

So it's a win-win for everyone.

How Online Retailers Can Help

A growing number of online pet stores donate product or monetary proceeds to shelters.

Coupaw.com, for example, supports the cause by offering items for sale from Shop for Shelters, an online network that helps to raise funds for animal welfare organizations across the U.S. through the sales of products for pets and the people who love them.

Fifteen percent of the sales proceeds are donated to various animal shelters.

These are just some of the many ways that those in the pet industry can help shelter pets. 

It's a great idea to get on board with this because rescued pets will increasingly make up the bulk of your client base, and it's good karma.