The Gilmer County Animal Shelter began its first phase of reopening the facility at 4152 Highway 52 East last Friday, although the actual building remains closed to the public for the time being.
The animal shelter is currently operating by appointment only and its main focus is owners wanting to surrender (drop off) animals and pick up of strays by animal control.
“We started with owner surrenders because we felt that’s something we can go ahead and start taking appointments for. They can call and make an appointment and we’ll give them a time (to come). We’re going to see how the appointments go and continue to do them over the next few months,” said Daniel Laukka, Gilmer Animal Shelter director.
As for animal control, that service was only limited in a small capacity the last few weeks, but is now back to picking up strays almost immediately, Laukka noted.
All interaction with the public is currently taking place outside the animal shelter building and staff members wear masks and gloves when interacting with the public.
A new Gilmer shelter website that people will be able to use to view animals available for adoption should be up and running within the next month, Laukka noted.
“We really do not have a lot of animals for adoption right now. Once we get to the adoption phase (of reopening), probably closer to the end of the month, we’ll have animals on that website. Then, if somebody wants to do a meet and greet with a dog they see on there, we will be able do that,” Laukka said.
“We can’t really do that with cats in the parking lot, so we will have our little side adoption room (set up) so they can come in and meet the cat. We’ll probably have one or two people come in at a time. We’re going to continue with the appointment slots every 30 minutes to give our staff the time they need to get the animals in to have them vaccinated, get the paperwork done and do the sanitation necessary for the next appointment,” he added.
For now, adoptions are only being done on a limited basis since the public is not yet able to come into the building to look at animals.
“Coming into the shelter anytime and browsing is really the only thing we’re cutting out right now,” Laukka said. “If somebody calls the shelter and knows what they’re looking for and we feel like we have that animal they’re interested in, we’ll give them a time to come and do a meet and greet. As far as advertising it out to the public right now, we’re just not there yet. Not until we get the new website up.”
The Gilmer County Animal Shelter’s hours are 1-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. For appointments or questions, call 706-635-2166 or email DLaukka@gilmercounty-ga.gov.