Looking to give a lucky cat or dog — or guinea pig — their forever home? Even though the process has changed, you can still adopt through Marin Humane. When shelter-in-place was ordered on March 16, the organization shifted gears like many others around the country. “We began sending all our animals into trusted foster homes so that we could have as few staff as possible working at the shelter,” says Lisa Bloch, Director of Marketing and Communications. This didn’t mean operations ceased by any means. A core group of staff remained at the shelter to care for animals who were under veterinary care or otherwise couldn’t go to foster homes, and Animal Services like wildlife rescue, lost and found, and cruelty complaints continued to be provided around the clock.
An unfortunate sign of the times, one facet of Marin Humane grew significantly. “Our Pet Safety Net program which provides free pet food and supplies for those needing it saw a huge increase in requests,” says Bloch. “We also began home deliveries to those in our Pet Safety Net program so that they could safely shelter-at-home with their pets and not have to worry — normally these clients would come to the shelter to pick these items up.”
Dog training courses, the humane education program and the spay/neuter clinic were all closed, as well as the in-person summer camp and the popular music benefit, Woofstock. Fortunately, other programs have gone virtual, including the summer camp and the upcoming big GALA in September. Prospective pet owners can’t drop in anymore and now need to schedule adoptions by appointment, but Bloch says they’re undeterred. “A tremendous amount of people contacted us about fostering or adopting!” Here are some of them.
How to help:
Consider supporting one of these local nonprofits that urgently need support during the pandemic.
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Kasia Pawlowska loves words. A native of Poland, Kasia moved to the States when she was seven. The San Francisco State University creative writing graduate went on to write for publications like the San Francisco Bay Guardian and KQED Arts among others prior to joining the Marin Magazine staff. Topics Kasia has covered include travel, trends, mushroom hunting, an award-winning series on social media addiction, and loads of other random things. When she’s not busy blogging or researching and writing articles, she’s either at home writing postcards and reading or going to shows. Recently, Kasia has been trying to branch out and diversify, ie: use different emojis. Her quest for the perfect chip is a never-ending endeavor.
