Sheltering During A Pandemic: How 2020 Informed Our Future
Smalls the Rottweiler is available for adoption at Contra Costa Animal Shelter
It goes without saying that 2020 was a year like no other. In the animal shelter community, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were immediate and abrupt. Shelters throughout the Bay Area were forced to scramble in the early stages to find solutions to many of the challenges presented by the pandemic: finding foster homes for animals in our care, adjusting business and service models for vital services like adoptions, ramping up Return to Home (RTH) efforts, and providing programs to support struggling people and pets in our communities.
At Contra Costa Animal Services (CCAS), these challenges were great. CCAS is the primary animal services agency for Contra Costa County (except the City of Antioch), with a service area population of 1.1 million residents. We are an open admission shelter with a large animal population and are the primary agency responsible for licensing and RTH efforts in our county. When the pandemic hit in mid-March, we had to move quickly to adapt everything - our staff/volunteer shifts, accommodations, services, programs - to continue critically needed services and to adopt or return pets to their forever homes.
Over the next few months, CCAS worked to update and innovate existing programs, services, and processes while we navigated these uncharted waters. Though there were bumps along the way, CCAS was ultimately able to overcome the challenges of 2020 with new and creative ways to serve our community.
Here are some of the most important lessons we learned along the way:
1. Our community steps up when asked. During the early stages of the pandemic, we were faced with the challenge of getting animals out of our shelter quickly due to a significantly reduced on-site staff and volunteer presence. We asked our volunteers, foster care givers, and the community at large to help find placements for the majority of animals in our care, and the response was tremendous. Within days we were able to place the majority of our animals into short- and long-term foster homes or with rescue groups, which allowed us to maintain a manageable shelter population. Simply put: when CCAS most needed support, our community stepped up.
2. We can adapt and improve services. The pandemic forced us to change the way we provided almost all of our services. In record time, and with a committed contingent of staff and volunteers, CCAS was able to convert our limited dog foster program into a robust operation that placed over 70 dogs into foster care within the first weeks of the pandemic. We also created new virtual adoption and RTH processes to allow people to adopt or reunite with lost pets without having to come into the shelter. We even piloted a free drive-through microchip clinic in November to test our ability to provide needed mobile services in targeted communities. All of these innovations contributed to the ability of CCAS to maintain and improve vital services.
3. Amid unprecedented challenges, we can achieve success. Despite the pandemic, CCAS made many gains in 2020. Our RTH program (also known as Return to Owner) produced the highest percentage of reunifications for dogs and cats in years, and we were able to place over 2,500 animals in adoptive homes or with rescue groups. CCAS also performed 2,378 spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinated more than 4,300 pets, and microchipped over 2,900 pets in 2020. Thanks to our committed staff and volunteers, and with the support of our responsive community, we learned that success can still be achieved despite great challenges.
Now more than a month into the new year, CCAS retains the same inspiration, innovation, and commitment that allowed us to rise to the challenges of 2020. Whatever your need, we hope to see you - virtually or in person - in 2021!