Austin Animal Well-Fair
Photo Credit: Williamson County Shelter Facebook page
June 11, 2015
Heavy rains and flooding all over the Austin area this past month left many people displaced, as well as pets. The annual Austin Animal Well-Fair helped shelters and organizations inform the public of post-disaster needs for volunteers, fosters and adoptions.
“This is usually the busiest time of year [for animal shelters],” said Kelley Dwyer, member of the Austin Bar Association’s animal law section. “When you add a flood on top of
that… as soon as people get displaced, animals are displaced too. They’re incredibly overloaded at our shelters right now so we really want to help them get those animals into lovable homes and out of the shelter.”
Williamson County was among those heavily impacted by the storms, and although its Regional Animal Shelter doesn’t serve Travis County, it still needs volunteers and fosters. “We
had people bringing in strays that got out because of the weather,” said Misty Valenta, community programs director for the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter “Then we had people that were surrendering their animals because of the floods because they weren’t able to
deal with the disaster and their animals.”
Unlike Travis, Williamson County has no live-outcome mandate. But the fair, hosted by the Austin Bar Association, brings all the different shelters and animal organizations together to create an environment of support for shelters to maintain the 90 percent live-outcome needed to be considered no-kill. “I think the community wants to have that kind of safety net that Austin has,” Valenta said “So they just want to learn about what can they do to make that happen in
Williamson County and they’re happy that we’re there with some answers and some support to make that happen.”
The May statistics haven’t been fully counted to know the exact increase of displaced animals in the Austin area, but over the course of a year many shelters can expect to house 7,000 to more than 17,000 animals depending on the counties serviced. Those numbers have gone
down for the Austin Animal Center, which reported in 2014 housing 17,000 animals compared to 23,000 in 2011. Williamson’s shelter houses closer to 7,000 a year, or about 580 animals a month. After the floods intake increased by about 300 percent.
In order to relieve the strain created by the disaster the Williamson shelter turned to social media to inform the community of its inability to guarantee what would happen to the owner-surrendered animals if they exceeded capacity. “The community saw it, it went viral and
for a whole weekend we just had people coming up to help and we had 150 animals go into adoption or foster homes.” Valenta said.
Amy Edwards has volunteered with the shelter since 2011. Her work includes matching up lost animal posts online with cats and dogs brought into the shelter. “I would see people post on the page ‘missing, my fence is down in this particular area’ and someone would respond ‘I can get out
and go drive around and look’,” Edwards said “They may not even be signed up volunteers but they would pick it up and help. The community really rallies around and really helped out – it became a huge community effort.”
Displaced animals found wandering the streets are being taken to shelters in Travis and Williamson counties. For pets not microchipped with owner information, social media have
helped reunite furry family members. For information on how to foster cats or dogs at home, volunteering and services provided to Austin, call 3-1-1.
June 11, 2015
Heavy rains and flooding all over the Austin area this past month left many people displaced, as well as pets. The annual Austin Animal Well-Fair helped shelters and organizations inform the public of post-disaster needs for volunteers, fosters and adoptions.
“This is usually the busiest time of year [for animal shelters],” said Kelley Dwyer, member of the Austin Bar Association’s animal law section. “When you add a flood on top of
that… as soon as people get displaced, animals are displaced too. They’re incredibly overloaded at our shelters right now so we really want to help them get those animals into lovable homes and out of the shelter.”
Williamson County was among those heavily impacted by the storms, and although its Regional Animal Shelter doesn’t serve Travis County, it still needs volunteers and fosters. “We
had people bringing in strays that got out because of the weather,” said Misty Valenta, community programs director for the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter “Then we had people that were surrendering their animals because of the floods because they weren’t able to
deal with the disaster and their animals.”
Unlike Travis, Williamson County has no live-outcome mandate. But the fair, hosted by the Austin Bar Association, brings all the different shelters and animal organizations together to create an environment of support for shelters to maintain the 90 percent live-outcome needed to be considered no-kill. “I think the community wants to have that kind of safety net that Austin has,” Valenta said “So they just want to learn about what can they do to make that happen in
Williamson County and they’re happy that we’re there with some answers and some support to make that happen.”
The May statistics haven’t been fully counted to know the exact increase of displaced animals in the Austin area, but over the course of a year many shelters can expect to house 7,000 to more than 17,000 animals depending on the counties serviced. Those numbers have gone
down for the Austin Animal Center, which reported in 2014 housing 17,000 animals compared to 23,000 in 2011. Williamson’s shelter houses closer to 7,000 a year, or about 580 animals a month. After the floods intake increased by about 300 percent.
In order to relieve the strain created by the disaster the Williamson shelter turned to social media to inform the community of its inability to guarantee what would happen to the owner-surrendered animals if they exceeded capacity. “The community saw it, it went viral and
for a whole weekend we just had people coming up to help and we had 150 animals go into adoption or foster homes.” Valenta said.
Amy Edwards has volunteered with the shelter since 2011. Her work includes matching up lost animal posts online with cats and dogs brought into the shelter. “I would see people post on the page ‘missing, my fence is down in this particular area’ and someone would respond ‘I can get out
and go drive around and look’,” Edwards said “They may not even be signed up volunteers but they would pick it up and help. The community really rallies around and really helped out – it became a huge community effort.”
Displaced animals found wandering the streets are being taken to shelters in Travis and Williamson counties. For pets not microchipped with owner information, social media have
helped reunite furry family members. For information on how to foster cats or dogs at home, volunteering and services provided to Austin, call 3-1-1.