The North Bay and District Humane Society will not be handling any more adoptions until further notice in an effort to curb the number of people visiting the facility.
The building has been closed to the public and to its volunteers since March 12 as a safety precaution during the COVID-19 pandemic
“At this point, we’re trying to limit as much access to the facility as possible, so we made the decision to stop adoptions going forward,” said executive director Liam Cullin.
“We’re trying to maintain as much social distance as possible with the staff to make sure they are able to continue to care for the pets that we have on-site.”
There are approximately 40 cats and five dogs on site.
The executive director says keeping foot traffic in check is in the best interest of all concerned.
“We’ve noticed that a number of people have been coming here wanting to visit the animals before proceeding with an adoption, and we just decided there was too much risk to allow people to continue to visit,” said Cullin.
“We are in a position where we have to maintain operations. If anyone of our staff got sick, we would have to shut down. And if we were to shut down, then there would be nobody at all to care for the animals. So, it is in our best interest just to completely close to the public to make sure that none of the staff get ill and that we are able to continue to provide the level of care that we have to for the animals.”
After consulting with a local veterinarian, a further decision was made to temporarily shut down the spay-neuter clinic.
“We had a conversation with Dr. Schweitzer and just following the lead of other clinics in town as well as across the province, spay-neuter is not an essential service. So, we’re currently reaching out to all people who currently have appointments and are trying to postpone them indefinitely until such time as we think it is safe for us to reopen again.”
The staff goes in on a daily basis to ensure the animals are getting fresh food and water, fresh litter, to see to it that they have a clean facility, and the dogs are being walked to get exercise and some socialization.
“At this point, we are only doing surrenders on an emergency basis. Lots of times there are people who just want to surrender an animal because their lifestyle may have changed, but at this point, we are only taking them in emergency situations, where there may be an illness and they can’t look after them.”
Again, people are asked not to visit the Humane Society.
“We will make arrangements to pick up the animal. We are still working out the logistics of that. The idea is that we have our animal control road staff and they’ll get prepared with the proper personal protective equipment and be able to pick up any animals that may need to be picked up as a result of illness.”
The society will continue its role as animal control for the city of North Bay as well as West Nipissing, East Ferris and Bonfield.
“It is a rapidly evolving situation and we are trying to adapt in the best way possible. We just want to make sure that we’re able to provide the proper level of care for the animals we do have. And that means we need to make sure our staff is as safe as possible to continue to provide that care,” said Cullin.
“In the instance of stray animals, we’re asking people to call us before coming to the facility so we can be as prepared as possible. We’ve talked about the possibility of setting up a tent outside. So, if people do need to visit to pick up a stray animal, they’re not coming into the facility.”
He says that way everything can be done in an open space and staff can maintain the required two meters distance from the public.
“In terms of returning animals, we are trying to do as much as we can over the phone in terms of accepting payment or making sure that we are provided with all the proper documentation to prove ownership of the animal before we’re returning the animal to the owner,” said Cullin.
“And we are even discussing the possibility of our animal control staff possibly delivering the animals as well.”
Precautions are also in place for stray animals.
“We’re asking members of the public if they come across a stray animal to reach out to websites like Buster’s Page or send us photos. We’ll post them and we’ll try to find its owner, rather than bringing the animal to the humane society facility. If we can find the owner before it even comes to the facility, that is another option as well.”
Accepting donations of supplies has been a bit of a challenge as they practice physical distancing.
In terms of linens, the humane society is good at this point.
“We have had people drop by trying to drop off towels and blankets. Typically, we would accept those in a heartbeat but again, we’re trying to limit accepting things from the public, so it is hard to turn those things down,” Cullin said.
“With the limited number of animals, we currently have on-site, we have been doing a better job of keeping on top of the laundry and making sure everything is clean. “
The facility is always looking for food donations, but that too is challenging.
“So, donations of gift cards to any of the pet stores in town would always be appreciated because it would allow us the ability to just go and pick up the items ourselves instead of having to get them from the public,” said Cullin.
“We may reach out to the stores and see if people can just buy a gift card directly from the store and leave it there in our name, so staff can access them that way.”
Monetary donations are always welcome.
“They can visit our website (northbayhumanesociety.ca) and go to our ‘donate now’ button and donate that way and help us to continue to care for the animals on site.”
Cullin says now is a great time to spend time with your pet.
