Oklahoma City Animal Welfare Division: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The funds were used to pay for the direct care of 42 storms pets, which included feeding, enrichment (toys, blankets, beds), and daily care. Our board-and-care fee is $10 a day, which is what each pet is charged out to, except for the first day, for which no charge was made.
We committed to keep storm pets 30 days from the date of intake to give owners ample time to find their lost pets. We did keep pets longer, and we do have a couple of pets left in our adoption program. The grant allowed us to keep our commitment so that animals didn't need to be euthanized for time/space. We are an organization dedicated to providing the best services and programs possible to our community. As the largest shelter in the state, we find ourselves called upon to assist metro communities with disaster response and some sheltering (we take in about 3,000 pets a year from neighboring communities as a service to the pets). However, we are not funded to harbor these extra pets, so this grant allowed us to not only assist the Oklahoma City community, which was affected by the tornadoes, but it allowed us to assist the City of Moore and Oklahoma County with displaced and injured animals.
How many pets did this grant help?
We saved 42 pets with this funding. All of them were either adopted, returned to their owners, or transferred to rescue-group adoption programs.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Shilo is a tan, male Labrador Retriever. He came into our shelter as a puppy on Feb. 3, 2012. He was too young to place into adoption, so we sent him to a foster home for a month. He came back on Feb. 27, 2012, and was adopted to a woman who lives in Norman, OK, on March 2, 2012. Norman is about 15 miles from Oklahoma City.
On June 8, 2013, Shilo was brought to the shelter with multiple minor injuries after the May 31 tornado/high wind event. On June 10, 2013, his adopter reclaimed him. We were able to identify his owner through the tattoo we placed on his stomach when we neutered him prior to his adoption.
We are often able to reunite pets and owners through tattoos, tags or microchips, but it was especially gratifying to be able to reunite an owner and a lost pet after 1) a disaster event; 2) through our tattooing process; and 3) especially after originally fostering and adopting one through our shelter. Shilo came full-circle during this event, and we are thrilled for him and his person.
