Shelter resources for COVID-19
This is obviously a tough time for all of us, but what’s been so amazing is how many people are stepping up to help the animals. Even though it is amazing, it isn’t surprising. Every time we’ve faced a crisis, our community — people like you — have come through.
Are you wondering how you can help? I have something that everyone here can do — and you don’t even have to get within six feet of anyone else to do it!
As soon as we saw the coronavirus outbreak on the horizon, we started putting together teams of people to look at pretty much every possibility, including what would happen if shelters and adoption centers closed to the public or, if cities were shutting down, how to get animals adopted quickly or into foster homes. We are concerned about these things not just for the Sanctuary, our lifesaving centers, and our NKLA and NKUT coalition partners.
It’s also important for us to take care of our partners in the Best Friends Network. The network comprises nearly 3,000 shelters and rescue groups working to achieve no-kill nationwide by 2025, and they are now working together to save lives during the pandemic. They are as much a part of the Best Friends family as our own lifesaving centers, and we want to support them in any way we can.
One of the ways we’ve always been doing this is by providing critical resources to network partners. When COVID-19 showed up, we dedicated one of our teams to adding even more resources and information to our network website, to help our partners deal with everything that’s going on right now.
The lifesaving library has a page loaded with information that answers the questions we’re hearing most from our partners: how to manage staff and volunteers during this crisis, what changes should be made to operations, what to do if you have to cancel your largest fundraising event, how to save animals’ lives even when your shelter is closed or the public has limited access to it. Not only do we have practical tips and ideas, but there are some examples of innovative programs that have already been implemented successfully around the country in the midst of the pandemic.
So, back to how you can help. It’s simple: Reach out to your local shelter or rescue group. Let them know that we have amazing resources available to help them get through this challenging time. Send them this blog post so they’ll know where to access our COVID-19 resources for shelters and rescue groups.
We know that in every area of life, not just in animal welfare, when we help each other, we all do better, and that’s especially true at times like these. But in animal welfare, helping each other do better means saving more lives. That’s the “together” in our call to action: Together, we can Save Them All.
