SANDPOINT — Panhandle Animal Shelter is challenging all animal lovers to speak up for voiceless animals in need of shelter and care. It is launching the Voiceless Challenge, a unique fundraiser tailored for distribution across social media pages.

It works like the Ice Bucket Challenge popularized by ALS Association, according to Mandy Evans, executive director of the shelter. PAS invites each participant to make a short video to post on Facebook or another social media site, using some version of the following script:

"I am a voice for animals who are voiceless, I support animal rescue and hope you will do the same. I challenge (names of three people you are challenging) to do the same. You have 24 hours to accept this challenge."

The really challenging bit comes next; the speaker must sing a song. Any song will do, even an original.

"The goal is to start a viral campaign that gets people talking about rescue and raising money to support rescue animals," Evans said.

"More than 20,000 animals enter municipal shelters every day ... Space must be made available to house the new animal, so the dog or cat that has already been there for awhile must go. About half end up being adopted ... The other half? They don't make it," according to shelter literature.

People are welcome to include their rescued or adopted animals in their films, too. The videos should be about two minutes long. PAS asks that participants show the URL voicelesschallenge.org in the films and that they tag their Facebook posts with #voiceless challenge.

Information: pasidaho.org, voicelesschallenge.org