The Hall County Animal Shelter and Humane Society of Northeast Georgia facilities may be closed to the public, but staff are still making every effort to find their animals “FURever” homes.
Now both shelters are either offering, or soon to be offering, an online adoption process. Potential adopters can fill out adoption paperwork online, then make an appointment to meet an animal they are interested in at the respective location.
The Hall County Animal Shelter began offering online adoptions this week, while the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia kicked off their online adoptions with an all-day online adoption event Thursday.
Stephanie List, Director of the Hall County Animal Shelter, said online adoptions are a starting point for clearing the currently filled shelter.
“We thought starting with online adoptions would be the best route to go,” said List. “You just fill out an application online, call us and schedule an appointment to come meet with the animal in the kennels in front of the facility.”
For each of these shelters, the main difference in the online adoption process is the amount of interaction between shelter staff and potential adopters. The Hall County Animal Shelter and Humane Society of Northeast Georgia are each following strict social distancing guidelines during the meeting times.
At the Hall County Animal Shelter, only two family members are allowed to meet one dog per appointment and appointments last 15-20 minutes.
Staff at the Humane Society used similar social distancing standards during their online adoption event. Potential adopters were encouraged to bring as few people as possible, but families were permitted to bring all family members so a dog could meet everyone.
Those who scheduled an appointment at the society’s event were sectioned off into different rooms so there was as little contact as possible between adopters.
The Humane Society also limited the number of animals a potential adopter could meet at their event; each appointment was only allowed to meet one dog.
“The main goal is to try to get the animals in a home, so however we can do that, that places them in a good home, we’ll try it just to make sure that those animals do find a home and aren’t sitting in a shelter for an extended period of time,” said Julie Edwards, Director of the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia.
Edwards said 22 puppies were adopted at the online adoption event. List said one dog had been adopted through the online adoption process so far, but staff are hopeful more will find homes.
The Hall County Animal Shelter currently has a link with information on completing an application and scheduling an appointment on their website.
The Humane Society will announce their policy soon on scheduling online adoptions via their Facebook page.
