“Animal Allies Humane Society in Duluth has had to make some changes over the last year.
“Right now with the pandemic, things look a little different. We are closed to the public which means no browsing and very few volunteers and a lot less of humane education,” said Emily Spurgeon, Animal Allies’ adoption manager.
Though people aren’t able to just walk in and browse animals available for adoption in person, they are still able to check Animal Allies’ website and set up in-person appointments with cats and dogs they see there. Animal Allies has actually found that this new set-up has been very beneficial to the animals.
“We are hoping to keep some of that when things get back to normal, or whatever that looks like, because we’ve seen such a dramatic increase in the quality of life of the animals while they’re here. They are much less stressed with fewer people interacting with them throughout the day,” said Spurgeon.
She also added that this reduction in outside guests has improved the quality of interactions the pets do get.
“This is an opportunity to do a ton of enrichment with the animals. Being appointment only, my staff has had time to really bond with the animals and have them behind the front desk more and pour energy into some of our behavioral cases that do poorly in a shelter environment,” Spurgeon explained.
A recent poll done by the ASPCA found that more than half of the shelters polled plan to keep some of their COVID-19 protocols in effect after the pandemic for similar reasons.”
View the whole story here: https://www.wdio.com/duluth-minnesota-news/animal-allies-humane-society/6033681/