October 13, 2020
“At first, we were overwhelmed with people looking to foster - which has been an awesome consequence.”
The Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland had to close their doors to the public when covid hit, which impacted their usual traffic of 4,000 visitors a month.
Jeana Roth, Director of Community Engagement, said the team has been very quick to make changes and adapt to the virtual world and social distancing. “The team as a whole,” she said, “took a really good look at what we do and how we could continue to do it with our doors closed. That really has been our goal in response to all of this. Some of us tried to work from home, but it's hard to keep animal lovers out of this building - we all want to be at work which is a cool side effect of our job.”
ARLGP has made many changes including but not limited to: expanding their foster program, facilitating virtual adoption counseling, partnering with 6 human food pantries to supply food for those in need and expanding their own pet food pantry from 2 afternoons to 7 afternoons to continue serving as a community resource.
The community has been extremely supportive of the efforts at ARLGP, so much so that when they were completely out of canned puppy food they held a drive and received over 600 cans. “It just proves that we’re more than just an adoption center, we are here as a resource,” Jeana said.
First and foremost, ARLGP wants everyone to stay safe and healthy, but they are antsy to continue to welcome human visitors and animals from regions where they need to be relocated, since shelters across the country are overwhelmed with animals. “We hope to get back into our safety network to help as many animals as we can.”
Thank you, Jeana, and ARLGP for being #TheHeartAndSoulOfTheCommunity
