SAN MARCOS, Texas – Many animal shelters in the area either closed or are seeing less foot traffic coming through the doors due to social distancing guidelines. For shelters that depend on getting dogs and cats out the doors, there's pressure to keep that flow going amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter, which serves all of Hays County, is pleading with the public to adopt or foster animals now that the lobby is closed.
"This is actually a really great time to think about fostering. If you're self-quarantined, you're going to be self-quarantining for at least two weeks, and even adopting, this is a great time, too," said shelter manager Jeanne Saadi.
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The shelter will start processing applications over the phone, and make appointments for people wanting to adopt or foster, and Saadi said they can even deliver an animal to your house if you're approved.
"Anything we can do to motivate people to give one of our pets a home or even a temporary home is what we really want to do," Saadi said. "Obviously there's always a need, especially from a public safety aspect, for animals to come into the shelter. And if we don't have any leaving, then the shelter's gonna fill up. If we don't have any space and we need space, then we're facing some really difficult decisions. So that's why we're asking right now to get those foster homes, activated and started."
Jeff Helgeson and his family are doing their part to help the community during this coronavirus pandemic by fostering.
“I think we've been thinking about getting another dog to have playmate for Lucky for a while," Helgeson said. "We figured we'd be at home for a while to be able to take care of a dog and then we decided just to foster a dog.”
The family is now fostering Champ, a Lab/American Staffordshire Terrier, who is fitting in quite nicely.
“He seems really happy to be at our house and have people playing with him and taking care of him. He doesn't really want to let us out of his sight now,” said Champ's (temporary) human mom Anne Halsey.
The family wanted to step up in the shelter's time of need.
"We want to keep the kids moving and engaged and busy and keep them occupied while we're at home and also we realized you know there's gonna be a huge stress on our community and the services that our community provides and if we can contribute to lessening that stress in some way by taking in a foster pet, that's great. We're happy to do it," Halsey said.
Their kids say Champ is getting along with their other dog Lucky and hope he will be a permanent member of the family.
"We're testing, we’re learning. We're all growing together," Halsey said.
The public intake office of the San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter is closed until further notice; staff will be available via phone and email; please call 512-805-2655 or email animalservicesinfo@sanmarcostx.gov.
Animal protection officers will still respond to calls for injured animals, aggressive strays, bite cases and trapped wildlife. Friendly stray and owner surrender assistance will be provided by phone and email.
The adoption lobby is closed, but staff can still process adoptions by appointment by calling 512-805-2650, ext. 3 or emailing animalservicesinfo@sanmarcostx.gov. Foster pickups will be set by appointment only from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. daily. Interested fosters should email bweigand@sanmarcostx.gov.
Kennel staff and officer schedules will remain the same in order to continue to provide exceptional care for the animals at the shelter.