- Healthy cats and kittens are not an emergency warranting intake into your shelter. Only sick and injured animals, or animals in imminent danger, should be admitted to animal shelters at this time.
- Shelters should strive to keep all healthy kittens and cats out of shelters by enlisting their community in the solution.
- Get strategic now.
- Launch a “Don’t kit-nap kittens” campaign so people understand to leave kittens with their moms. Toolbox here, including media materials and talking points for shelter staff.
- Build your “foster on deck” program now so you have homes ready to receive fosters. Have supplies ready or already delivered to waiting foster homes.
- Have foster volunteers complete online training, even if they don’t have kittens yet. See resources below.
- Enlist your community in the program.
- If finders do end up with a litter of kittens, turn the finder into a foster home. Have supplies delivered to them, and provide virtual support.
- For sick and injured, foster care is still an option with experienced foster care providers.
- Shelters are encouraged to create a streamlined process for exams and treatment at the shelter and move them into foster care ASAP.
- Continue to enforce social distancing while enacting foster care solutions.
- Establish a non-contact system for transferring kittens between the public, the shelter, and foster care.
- Creative solutions include using Uber or Lyft delivery services, and vestibule/cage transfer systems between shelter staff and the public.
- Empower your foster coordinator to work from home with everything they need to help people make connections.
*did anyone notice that except for the last bullet point, this is exactly what we always recommend?
Resources:
Maddie’s Fund COVID-19 Emergency Fostering Course https://www.maddiesuniversity.org/Catalog/LrnrT…3-c5d2-4ba1-b889-e1a7fe7fc030
Maddie’s Fund Foster Care Flash Classes https://www.maddiesfund.org/flash-classes.htm
COVID-19 Specific Recommendations for Animal Shelters https://www.uwsheltermedicine.com/library/resources/animal-services-role-in-covid-19-support#kitten
