Covid Relief for Pets – food, shelter, wellness programs

[SW Colo. | March 2020 | By Kelly Goodin]

Second Chance is Here to Help

Right now, like everyone else, Second Chance Humane Society is being humbly reminded of the importance of taking care of one another and of community. Our mission is Connecting Pets, People & Community While Saving Lives. We want you to know that we are here to help.

We have been working hard to adjust our operations to best match the need of our communities while adhering to the guidelines of how to best keep our communities, staff and pets safe. We ask community members to let us know of any additional needs you are facing in keeping your pets as part of your families. Here are updates on our operations which are available to residents of Ouray, Montrose & San Miguel Counties:

Second Chance Tri-County Pet Pantry

Free dog and cat food and supplies are available for low income or COVID affected community members. We can deliver or arrange pickup at our Animal Resource Center in Ridgway.

Go to our website, call, or email us for more information (contact info below) or use this link:

https://adoptmountainpets.org/pet-services/tri-county-pet-pantry-request-form

 

Second Chance Low Cost Health and Wellness Services

We are continuing our low-cost health and wellness services such as free wellness exams, and low cost vaccinations, micro-chipping, de-worming, etc. Please call to schedule an appointment. Pets will receive individual appointments and can be dropped off and picked up at our Shelter’s medical facility in Ridgway.

To prioritize our medical community’s needs, our low cost spay/neuter, dental, and other elective surgeries have been placed on hold for the time being but you can call to be added to a wait-list for when we are able to resume those services.

Second Chance Low Cost Pet ID Tag Program

$5.00 – $10.00 Pet Identification Tags

Ensuring all our community pets can find their way home.

Email (below) us your information, donate online, and we will make your tag and mail it to you.

Animal Rescue Services

We remain committed to providing high quality care to our shelter pets with a goal of keeping them healthy and adoptable. We are anticipating a significant increase in stray and abandoned pets in the coming weeks and are preparing for this by seeking adoptive homes for our current shelter population so we create space for those coming in.

We are working more directly with Montrose residents since the Montrose Shelter temporarily stopped receiving pets in March and we have established an emergency foster care network to help us meet the extra needs for sheltering.

In alignment with safety protocols, we have put a hold on all our community dog training classes and volunteer orientations at the shelter and are reducing our public hours, public areas and public contact. We are now receiving adopters by appointment basis only from 2-5 pm Wednesday through Saturday. Part of this reduction for public hours is also so we can devote additional time to increasing sanitizing routines to all our public areas.

We are actively encouraging community members, who are prepared to do so, to adopt pets into your families at this time. Currently, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no evidence that companion animals can spread COVID-19 or that they might be a source of infection in the United States. If you are ready to adopt please call ahead as we can discuss the adoption process and provide paperwork and procedures in advance to minimize your time at the shelter.