At your service in Spokane

NEW PARTNERSHIP SUPPORTS PEOPLE SO THEY CAN KEEP THEIR PETS

Keeping pets with the people who love them is one of the ways we’ll reach no-kill across the country by 2025. That means addressing the reasons people are forced to give up their pets when they don’t want to, including one of the top reasons people surrender their pets to shelters: housing issues.

Best Friends is teaming up with Catholic Charities, a large nonprofit provider of affordable housing in the United States, and SpokAnimal, a Best Friends Network partner in Spokane, Washington, on a pilot program focused on keeping pets out of shelters by connecting case workers to services for their clients’ pets. In just a few months since launching, the program is already changing lives for the better.

Catholic Charities Eastern Washington operates multiple housing units in Spokane and, as the name implies, throughout eastern Washington, including two emergency shelters. Recently, Catholic Charities identified that many folks who were or could be served by the organization were running into real challenges regarding their pets. Some people didn’t have pet food; some needed in-patient drug or mental health treatment but refused to leave their pets behind. Best Friends asked SpokAnimal about helping out, and the answer was a resounding “yes.”

That was in January of this year, and now there’s a new on-site pet food pantry, free spay/neuter services and a free temporary pet-boarding program for people served by Catholic Charities Eastern Washington. SpokAnimal is providing the medical services, including vaccines, spay/neuter and routine care for dogs and cats, and a pet food pantry containing hundreds of pounds of free food and basic pet supplies like Best Friends collars and leashes.

The program is giving people peace of mind that their pets have access to basic medical care, as well as other services. A couple who had been living in their car received free temporary boarding for their pets, rather than having to surrender them to a shelter, thanks to this program. It’s a glimpse of the future of animal welfare — a shift toward community-supported sheltering that doesn’t require pets to ever step foot in a shelter. Now that’s good service.

It’s a glimpse of the future of animal welfare — a shift toward communitysupported sheltering.