Guam Animals In Need, primarily known as GAIN, no longer has a waitlist for pet drop offs.
With this, GAIN advises the community not to drop off unwanted animals at its front gate.
As of recently, GAIN no longer has a waitlist for animal drop offs and are now accepting new pets.
The waitlist program for the only animal shelter on the island was introduced during the global COVID-19 pandemic when many people needed to drop off animals.
“The waitlist is no longer, which looking at it from this viewpoint is better for GAIN, it’s better for the community,” said Alison Hadley, executive director, GAIN. “It just makes things easier and smoother.”
During the program, GAIN would only operate on an emergency only basis. People who had to turn in animals when it wasn’t an emergency were put on a waiting list until the animals could be accommodated.
“Obviously there were a lot of people who needed to turn in animals so the waitlist was a little bit of a struggle and luckily we were able to re structure some of our policies with intakes and stuff like to make it easier,” Hadley told the Pacific News Center. “We just streamlined everything and got through it within a couple of weeks.”
According to Hadley, when people need to drop off their animals 9/10 GAIN was able to provide an immediate drop off date and time unless the individual is dropping off a large number then it may take longer.
She urges the community to not drop off animals at the gate unattended.
“We do understand that sometimes it can be hard to turn animals in and depending on the situation its not fun for everybody,” Hadley said. “It could be emotional so we do understand that people are not comfortable with that, but it’s not a good alternative to leave animals outside of our gate. We close at 5 and there’s nobody here until 8 the next morning so if animals are left out here they’re completely unprotected from the elements, other animals, and people so it’s in the animals best interest to contact us.”
For more information, contact GAIN at 671-988-1615 or visit its website at guamanimals.org.
###
