As western North Carolina marks the two-month anniversary of Hurricane Helene, shelter pets are still in need of help.
Many animal rescue organizations have rescued many pets since the hurricane devastated the area, including the BISSELL Pet Foundation’s Animal Incident Management (AIM), which has relocated 700 shelter pets from WNC.
While that is a large number, the need to help many more has only grown.
Kim Alboum, shelter outreach and policy development director for BISSELL Pet Foundation’s AIM told Carolina Journal in a recent phone interview that right after Helene struck, the state-level guidance for any stray pets that were coming into the shelter needed to be held for a minimum of 14 days, but 30 days was recommended. This extended stray hold off of the normal three-day stray hold was because people needed the opportunity to be able to find their pets that may have been lost during the disaster.
State-level guidance changed on Oct. 20 to a seven-day hold, so many of the pets that were on stray hold are now off. Shelters are now starting to get their regular intake, like a recent report out of Mitchell County where a small group of dogs that were in a neglectful situation and had to be brought into a shelter, so the numbers are increasing, yielding an overabundance of pets.
“We want to make sure that we’re continuing to clear them out because the seven-day straight hold is still long for our shelters,” she said. “On top of that, there are no adoptions happening. So even if we were back to our three-day stray hold, they’re really not getting adoptions because those communities are just not ready to start adopting yet, so we need to move them out of those communities and give them time to heal before we ask them to be business as usual.”
Alboum credits Forsyth Humane Society, one of their alliance partners, with serving as AIM’s intake base and figuring out where each pet was going. In many cases, she said, they kept some for their own program.
AIM has been working with in-state shelters like the Humane Society of Charlotte, Lake Norman Humane, and SPCA of Wake County, which have been traveling to the affected part of the state and picking up pets. Others, like Burlington Animal Services, who are not able to transport the pets themselves, have been taking in cats and some smaller and medium-sized dogs.
While out-of-state shelters like the Animal Welfare League of Arlington and Animal Welfare League of Alexandria in Virginia have recently taken cats from the Asheville Humane Society and Henderson County Humane Society, most out-of-state transports have slowed down. Alboum said they might revisit doing that again if needed.
She said she has been touched by all of the shelter workers who helped with the rescue efforts in western North Carolina.
“I think one of the most heartwarming things that I have seen in all of my time working in animal welfare is flying back on the plane from western North Carolina after seeing the groups on the ground, after seeing Asheville Humane and spending time with that team while we put crates together to load pets onto the plane, and then when the plane landed in Winston Salem to see all of those other North Carolina shelters standing there on the ground outside of their vehicles waiting for those pets,” Alboum recalled. “That is something that I will never forget that moment and realizing how incredible shelters are, and how much they do for each other, and how far we’ve come in North Carolina in our animal sheltering.”
While helping pets is the number one goal, she told CJ that the health and well-being of those shelter workers, who have been heroes in their communities, are equally important. That’s why the Foundation recently held an online trauma workshop with a certified social worker for the workers to talk about what they have gone through after Helene’s aftermath and give them some tools to start healing
“Our founder Cathy Bissell is very passionate about the health and welfare of the staff, and so it was a no-brainer for us to go ahead and engage our trauma instructor and make sure that that they’re going to get the help that they need to process this,” Alboum said. “What they have been through, words can’t express. I mean, they didn’t see it coming, and they’ve never been through anything like that before, and yet they’re expected to not only care for the animals at the shelter but also continue to care for animals that are coming in that have been impacted and operating business as usual and that’s not how we want animal shelters treated.”
She said while shelters are not at the point of talking about euthanasia as an option, if more fostering or adoptions don’t happen, they will be in that position.
People don’t have to come to western North Carolina shelters to help out if they want to foster or adopt. Doing so anywhere in the state will help clear some space at those shelters.
“If people want to go to visit the SPCA of Wake County, etc., and adopt, I can assure you that if they clear space, western North Carolina is going to be on their mind,” Alboum said.
Adoption is the best way to help out, but shelters can also help someone interested in fostering a pet and provide crates, collars, food, dishes, and any needed medical care. Plus, it gets the pet acclimated out of the shelter and ready for adoption.
If neither of those options works, people can donate to their local shelters or through organizations like the BISSELL Pet Foundation.
“I think the most important thing is that the North Carolina community needs to remember that even though we’re two months out from that terrible disaster, the people of western North Carolina are still recovering, and that means that our animal shelters are still recovering,” Alboum told CJ. “They still need us and that is something that, if people want to help today, they can foster, they can adopt, and it’s a great time to do it around the holidays. So bring a pet home for the holidays, but maybe one from western North Carolina or your local animal shelter.”
