MURPHYSBORO (WSIL) -- Everyone is feeling the impact of COVID-19 in one form or another, including animal shelters.
Animal shelters across the state have been forced to shut their doors, which unfortunately means no pets are going to find new homes for at least a couple weeks.
Diane Daugherty, President of the Board at Saint Francis CARE, says they had to stop rescuing new pets last week, leaving the shelter with fewer animals than they've ever had. "Which is by design because if we were to get coronavirus with one of our employees, and we had to be quarantined, then we'd have to go to emergency foster situation, and we don't want to do that obviously for the health of our employees, but we want our employees to have jobs."
Daugherty says they've already had to think outside of the box when coming up with ways for puppies to get their vaccinations, and they may eventually have to do the same with adoptions.
"If this goes on beyond April 7th, we will get creative. We will do some kind of online videos where we do drive-thru adoptions. We will get creative because, not only will we need a source of income, but we're going to need to get some of these guys adopted and people need companionship."
St. Francis CARE has had to reschedule not one, but three fundraisers, and with many people out of jobs, Daugherty says they will feel the impact.
"We're obviously accepting newspapers. Bleach is hard to get, cleaning supplies, dog food, drop it off here at the front door, puppy food, puppy food, anything like that, anything at this time is important to us."
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