TROY — The Miami County Animal Shelter has altered its day-to-day operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to manager Morgan Howard, the shelter, located at 1110 N. County Road 25-A, is working to continue to foster the well-being of the animals in its care while making an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
“We’ve restricted things,” Howard said. “We’re only allowing Miami County residents to come into our facility and we’re open by appointment only.”
Howard said the shelter holds three appointments per day, at 1, 2, and 3 p.m., in between which the facility is “heavily sanitized” and disinfected prior to the next visitor’s appointment. Prior, the shelter was open for walk-ins.
“Other than that, we’re staying pretty consistent,” Howard said. “Even with just our Miami County residents coming into the facility, we’ve been booking up appointments. It may have affected us a little bit with residents of other counties and states who want to come in, but we’ve had an overwhelming response from just Miami County residents wanting to look at our animals for adoption.
Howard said the facility’s employees, which include Deputy Sarah Fraley and four animal control officers, are now on adjusted shifts in order to limit the amount of people in the facility at one time.
“I have them on a rotating shift, so Dep. Fraley and myself are here Monday through Friday, and the four ACOs are on a one-week-on, one-week-off rotation,” Howard said. “So, at max, there are four employees here at once.”
Although less visitors are allowed inside the facility now, Howard said she is happy with how consistent adoptions have stayed.
“During all this bad stuff going on in the world right now, it’s still nice to see that people want to adopt and want to get these animals loving forever homes,” she said. “We definitely appreciate the citizens who have been reaching out to us and wanting to adopt.”
Currently, the shelter has a litter of seven puppies, around 5-6 weeks old, along with 25 adult dogs for adoption. The puppies will be ready to adopt at 8 weeks old. There are also two litters of kittens, aged four to five weeks, and five adult cats.
As for donations, Howard said the facility is still receiving its regular donations from local businesses, and also receives donations from people who order online, at Chewy.com or Amazon.
“The virus may have affected our donations a little bit in terms of people physically coming to the facility to drop off goods, but it has been made up by people going online to order and ship supplies,” she said.
Howard said the shelter is currently in need of toys for the animals, as well as wet and dry food for both cats and dogs.
Those interested in adopting an animal are encouraged to visit the shelter’s website, at www.co.miami.oh.us/shelter.
