PETS AVAILABLE
County SPCA reopening this week for limited adoptions
Now that you’re spending more time at home, you may have thought of adding a furry member of the family to the fold.
In that case, you should know that, even though the Montgomery County SPCA has been closed for adoptions for a few weeks due to the coronavirus crisis, it will reopen Wednesday.
“We’ve been trying to keep as many people out of our building as possible,” explained executive director Carmen
Ronio.
“A lot of people may just want to come in and look around, but we’re not doing that now. We’ve only been taking emergency animals, stray animals and assisting the public with whatever their needs are for their animals. We’re not reaching any capacity problems so far. We’re able to handle what we have and we have a full staff at all three of our shelters.”
The facility has been open to accepting owner-surrendered dogs, but fortunately, there have been fewer of those recently.
“We will take an animal through our front doors. We do that because we don’t want anybody to get discouraged and let them loose,” Ronio said. “They can ring the bell and they’ll be admitted to the building.”
Closing the building for adoptions was considered the best way of taking a proactive approach to safety during the crisis, Ronio noted.
“We’re trying to keep our staff, and of course the public, healthy by limiting access to our buildings. We can’t afford to have anyone get sick and have to limit our care of the animals, that’s what we’re worried about. Our veterinarians, animal care technicians are all here, and that’s why we’re very cautious. We can’t afford to spread a disease or get one in our facility. We’ve still been investigating animal cruelty complaints, and everything else has remained the same. And we have had some people offering to foster, so we’re going to open that up too and foster animals where necessary. We’ve fostered animals before, and most of the fostering happens with the kitten population when they’re too young to be placed up for adoption. And we also foster our geriatric animals, dogs and cats, if they need care in their later years and let them live out their lives in homes.”
Even when adoptions resume Wednesday, the process will be different, Ronio said.
It all starts with those friendly furry faces online.
“You’ll see an animal online and put in an application. That will hold the animal,” Ronio explained. “After the applicant is selected,
we’ll make an appointment for them to come in, view the animal and adopt or not adopt. You can interact with an animal once you’ve put in an application and we’ve called you in.”
Only one applicant will be chosen, Ronio added.
“We have a fair amount of animals now, but we’re not overwhelmed. We’ve been very aggressive with our spay and neuter programs here in Montgomery County, so puppies are not coming into shelters that often.”
The new adoption process will prevent an influx of animal lovers descending on the building, but Ronio is hopeful that many folks will find the time is right to welcome a four-legged friend into their home.
“Now that we’re all locked down, some people may find it fits their lifestyle to have an animal at home,” he said.
The Conshohocken branch of Montgomery County SPCA is at 19 E. Ridge Pike. Phone is 610825-0111.
View adoptable animals at www.montgomery countyspca.org