I’m sure you all needed another “How we are responding to COVID-19” piece to read like a hole in the head, but here is ours.
In order to protect our staff and clients and to support the intent of the universal recommendations of health professionals at a national, state, and local level, Humane Pennsylvania and Humane Veterinary Hospitals will be dramatically scaling back operations until Monday, March 30, 2020.
- What does this mean for animals? All animals in our care will be safe and sound, cared for by dedicated staff, as usual. However, we will be operating with a stripped down number of staff who will be providing food, care, cleaning, and medical treatment for our sheltered animals. Adoptions services will be halted until March 30. Animal intake appointments will be rescheduled until March 30 or after.
- What does this mean for clients? We acknowledge that this will be inconvenient for clients and we ask that everyone appreciate the intent of the service reductions. Non-essential transactions and appointments will be rescheduled. This includes wellness veterinary appointments and elective veterinary services. Critical services and medications will be provided to clients but we will have limited staffing at both of our hospitals. We are implementing contact procedures for veterinary clients to allow them access to information and veterinary supports, including limited “televet” services. Please refer to hvhospitals.org for updates and information.
- What does this mean for our services? Until March 30, some services will be curtailed completely, such as adoptions and community clinics. Others will be limited, such as veterinary services. Others are being worked out right now, such as food pantry and other Healthy Pets Initiative services. We will be maintaining staff at the phones to answer questions, and we will be posting and responding on Facebook, social media, and HumanePA.org as promptly as possible, as well as responding to emails.
- What does this mean for staff and volunteers? Since we cannot operate without people, the safety of our staff and volunteers are foremost in our minds (tied with our animals!). Volunteers will be asked to stay home through March 30. Staff will be assigned as needed but there will be no furloughs. Staff not scheduled will be “on call” as needed and will be furthering their skills by completely required and supplemental continuing education opportunities. Humane Pennsylvania is proud to offer our staff a safe workplace, medical benefits, and a family friendly environment. Keeping those employees and their families healthy is important to us.
- What does this mean for events? Most events conducted by Humane Pennsylvania staff will be canceled until March 30. Events after that are still on, but we will update and make changes as circumstances dictate. The Auction, Pints for Pups, etc. are still a go! And boy will we need the donations! Speaking of which….
- What does this mean for donations and support for Humane Pennsylvania? We hope nothing, but we know major crisis almost always result in a short term decline in donations as everyone focuses on the problems at hand. We understand and we want everyone to focus on their own safety and the safety of their family, human and not. However, if you wish to help us when we will need it most, we would welcome it. Consider setting up monthly giving, then you won’t even need to think about it!
Humane Pennsylvania is well suited to handle this situation. We deal with illness and disease routinely, from kennel cough to parvo to ringworm. We know that thoughtful, consistent, decisive action is the key to saving lives and keeping a bad situation from getting worse. In this case, we are ensuring we do this for our human friends and family.
This situation is literally unprecedented. Some folks are freaking out, some folks are thinking it’s an over-reaction. Like most of what we do, we rely on science and the advice of experts in their fields. Health experts are telling us that social distance is what we should be practicing and non-essential activities should be curtailed. We can hope that in a couple of weeks this will have seemed like overkill. But we can’t count on that and my job as CEO and the job of our board is to protect our animals, staff, volunteers, and the public. This is the approach experts are suggesting in order to do that and we are following that advice.
Thank you for your support, understanding, and service to our mission. We can’t do our work without you and we truly wish you and your family safety and good health.
