CULLMAN, Ala. – As the county takes precautions to protect residents and reduce the spread of COVID-19, many animal lovers are becoming concerned for the county’s four-legged residents. Several areas across the country report that people are abandoning their pets or giving them up to shelters due to fears that they may be carriers for the disease, so The Tribune reached out to Dwain Floyd at the Cullman County Animal Shelter to see how the pandemic has affected the shelter.
The first thing Floyd wanted to point out was that the shelter is currently closed to the public and not accepting new animals.
“We’ve had some people call and ask about bringing their animals in, but we’re not accepting new animals for the time being. Other than that, we haven’t really seen any noticeable increase in people abandoning or surrendering their pets here in Cullman,” he stated. The second thing he pointed out, which is even more crucial than the first, is that there are currently no animals in the shelter at all.
“Every year we do an annual deep clean, and we were already preparing for that when the outbreak hit. Most of our animals were adopted out, but unfortunately we did have a few that we had to euthanize because they weren’t adoptable, and we just couldn’t hold on to them.”
Floyd stated that this annual cleaning will give the shelter a chance to clean and disinfect all the cages, thoroughly clean the walls and floors, apply fresh paint and install a new air conditioning unit.
“That AC is going to be the biggest thing for us,” Floyd commented, “because now we’ll have air circulating through the shelter instead of it being stuffy and stale all the time.” While he did not give an estimate of when the shelter would reopen, residents can visit the shelter’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/cullmancountyanimalshelter/) for updates.
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