Updated: 4/09/2020, 9:30AM PST
As of 3/25/2020, animal welfare industry leaders launched the COVID-19 Daily Digest, a daily newsletter sharing the latest information on how COVID-19 is impacting animal welfare. We recommend subscribing to the digest here if you have not already done so.
Shelterluv customers will continue to receive product updates and announcements from the Shelterluv team. Additionally, any customer interested in joining Shelterluv’s COVID-19 working group can do so by clicking this link. This group will receive tactical and strategic recommendations from Shelterluv during this crisis and beyond.
If you have any questions, please contact help@shelterluv.com
Updated: 3/17/2020, 2:45PM PST
The work of animal welfare is incredibly complex—and even more so during the COVID-19 outbreak. The Shelterluv team wants you to know that you’re not alone in this, and we’re here to support you as you plan to potentially adapt your operations over the coming weeks.
We’ve put together a list of key COVID-19 resources for animal shelters on our blog, including guides from American Pets Alive!, Best Friends Animal Society, National Animal Care & Control Association, and the Humane Society of the United States. We’re continually updating this list as more resources become available.
We know that this is a lot of information to sift through and process, but we recommend that you read through them to ensure that you’re doing all that you can for the animals in your care. To make things easier for you, we’ve outlined some of the top best practices from these guides and tips on how you can use Shelterluv to implement them.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us at help@shelterluv.com.
Recruit emergency fosters ASAP.
As more closings and cancellations occur in the coming weeks, it’s crucial to increase your foster base in case your shelter is forced to close. With university students heading home for the semester and more companies enforcing work-from-home policies, now is the time to get creative with your foster outreach—don’t be afraid to use your social media channels to relay your needs to the community.
How Shelterluv can help: You can filter for fosters straight from the home screen and send an email blast through Shelterluv. Click here for a step-by-step guide on how to reach out to fosters through Shelterluv, how to build and distribute applications, and how to configure a foster contract.
Keep track of animals’ medical needs by setting up a mobile clinic.
In case of extreme crisis or shutdown, you can set up a mobile clinic to deliver non-emergent medical care to your foster animals.
How Shelterluv can help: Shelterluv’s website is mobile-friendly, so you can keep track of all of your medical care on-the-go. Take advantage of our easy vaccine and medical form configurations and quick fill templates to increase efficiency. Click here for a step-by-step guide on how to create, schedule, and manage vaccines in Shelterluv.
Revisit your adoption policy—and process adoptions and fosters virtually whenever possible.
While your intakes might not slow down, people are less likely to adopt during times of uncertainty. If and when you can, remove as many barriers to adoption as possible and expedite your adoption process to get your animals home faster.
How Shelterluv can help: Shelterluv’s mobile checkout process takes two minutes and can be processed through mobile phone, tablet, or desktop computer. This means that you can process adoptions offsite, and you can limit physical interaction with the adopters because they can use their own phones to sign their digital paperwork and pay for their adoptions. Best of all, you can instantly raise donations at checkout to support your ongoing efforts. Click here to learn more about how you can process adoptions and fosters virtually in Shelterluv.
Animal control officers: focus on high priority/emergency calls and shelter intake reduction.
According to NACA, animal control officers should focus on the following:
- High priority/emergency calls including law enforcement assistance, injured or sick stray animals, cruelty and neglect complaints, bite complaints, and dangerous and aggressive dog complaints.
- Intake reduction protocols such as returning pets in the field instead of impounding them, suspending non-emergency owner surrender intake, and encouraging owners who are ill to keep their pets at home whenever possible.
How Shelterluv can help: Our map-based, fully mobile Field Services feature is included with every Shelterluv account, and you can track all of your field services and community-based efforts by priority level. Reach out to us at help@shelterluv.com to enable this feature if you haven’t already.
Get as much work done virtually as you can.
Communication with your staff and volunteers is key, especially if you’re forced to shut down. Come up with a proper pre-, during, and post-crisis communication plans and make sure that you’re not duplicating work across different members of your team.
If you can, recruit new volunteers and get them trained up on your protocol in case you need additional support during a potential shutdown.
How Shelterluv can help: Shelterluv is cloud-based, so you can log into Shelterluv remotely any time you’d like as long as you have an Internet or WiFi connection. Tasks are updated in real time so nothing gets lost in the shuffle. Click here to learn more about how to add and manage users in Shelterluv.