Maricopa County Animal Care and Control is looking to save more lives during the COVID-19 pandemic by adopting national guidelines in reducing shelter intake to offset the short- and long-term effects of the outbreak.
The guidelines, which take effect Saturday, March 21 at both facilities, mean the shelter will continue to offer certain services, such as:
- adoptions
- return to owner (picking up lost animals)
- stray dogs intake
but will temporarily suspend in-person services at the shelters, such as:
- owned-dog surrenders
- licensing
- vaccinations
- cat intakes
- and microchipping.
Residents are encouraged to license their dogs online at license.
In addition, the shelter’s field officers are focusing on high priority and emergency calls, such as bite complaints, dangerous and aggressive dog complaints and police/fire assistance cases. Less urgent calls will be deferred until further notice.
The shelter is asking residents who find stray or lost dog to bring the dogs to the shelter by appointment only or to try and find the owners on their own. The shelter also encourages people who have found strays to long onto the shelter’s Lost and Found site at lost pet.to help the dog reconnect with the owner.
Pets typically stay pretty close to home when they go missing, so this helps get pets home much more quickly.
All these efforts are intended to help prevent workplace exposure to COVID-19 and reduce our overall animal population.
As always, donations and support are greatly appreciated. Please visit donate for more information.