A big challenge I’ve been seeing for shelters is that the number of animals coming in does not slow down, but there is now a bottleneck going out,” said Amy Castro, president of Starlight Outreach and Rescue. “For us, where we’ve been impacted is our volunteers.”
Starlight Outreach and Rescue is an organization that works with Houston-area shelters to offer medical attention to animals beyond the abilities of shelters and provide fostering for animals with special needs, according to the organization’s website.
Pearland Animal Services closed its facility to the public on March 24 and has been doing curbside adoptions since. It has also waived adoption fees.
“People can fill out an application on the website then once it’s approved they can come here and we will bring their dogs to them,” animal services manager John Fischer said. “We’re wearing protective equipment and it’s become a really smooth process.” Volunteers for Pearland Animal Services not only come into the shelter and do tasks there like cleaning kennels, taking dogs on walks, or interacting with potential adopters, but they also man and operate the shelter’s off site adoption events.
“We take our adoption trailers and events throughout the city almost every weekend and now we just can't do that, so we are not getting even the virtual foot traffic that we’re used to getting,” Fischer said. “We’ve had to both cancel those events and also pick up those tasks that our volunteers usually do for us.”
Fischer said adoptions have stayed fairly consistent, though the facility is hovering at around 75% capacity, which is slightly higher than usual.
“We’ve had quite a few fosters for the animals but I think the biggest impact is our work with rescues,” Fischer said. “ We’re getting the majority of our animals out of the shelters and into private 501c rescues.”
Fischer said volunteers are very much missed at the shelter though the shelter is going to continue to follow recommended safety guidelines.
“We’ve had quite a few fosters for the animals but I think the biggest impact is our work with rescues,” Fischer said. “ We’re getting the majority of our animals out of the shelters and into private 501c rescues.”
“We will eventually get back to being open and doing our events, but I would guess that the new normal is likely going to be very different from the normal before the pandemic,” Fischer said.
