Submitted by Joint Animal Services
It is our sincerest hope that you are caring for yourselves—physically, mentally, and emotionally. May your pets be a source of comfort during these turbulent times.
Our team is showing up, standing up to each day’s challenges, and ensuring the animals in our community are provided for. Their dedication is truly inspiring. While we must make operational changes, we will continue to care for those who cannot speak for themselves.
To protect our community and to comply with the intent of the Stay Home – Stay Healthy Order, Animal Services (AS) will be suspending all adoptions until the order is lifted. Thanks to our wonderful fosters and volunteers, we are placing animals that don’t have to be in the Shelter in these homes. We will continue to do so for as long as necessary. We have over 40 new foster homes signed up for our foster home orientation. If we need more foster homes, we will put out a call.
AS will continue to offer some services on a limited basis and by appointment only. These services include: reclaiming of lost pets and dropping off stray animals.
Following the guidance provided by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA), AS is asking people to avoid surrendering their pets unless it is an emergency. NACA is advising animal shelters to take extra measures to reduce shelter intake to mitigate the short and long-term effects of COVID-19.
As recommended by NACA’s guidelines, Field Service Officers will continue to answer high priority and emergency calls. Those calls include injured or sick stray animals, cruelty and neglect complaints, bite complaints, dangerous and aggressive dog complaints, and more.
Found a stray pet? Animal Services is also asking people who find friendly, stray pets to consider fostering them until the Shelter can resume normal operations. Pets typically stay pretty close to home when they go missing, so this helps get pets home much more quickly, without having to endure the stress of the Shelter. Stray finders can file a found report with Animal Services, take the pet to a vet clinic or the Shelter to check for a microchip, and hold the pet to give the owner time to locate it.
To learn more about ways to donate, please go to https://jointanimalservices.org/donate/. Critical items can also be purchased directly from the Shelter’s Amazon Wish List and shipped directly to Animal Services.
For information about local impacts of coronavirus on humans and guidance for keeping yourself and others healthy, please follow the dedicated page on the Thurston County Health Department website: https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/phss/Pages/coronavirus.aspx.
