Besides dogs and cats, Marin Humane likewise homes special animals like chinchillas.
I enjoy when I open a work email from a colleague that checks out something like, “Hi everyone, today we’ll be welcoming a chinchilla, two rats and a corn snake from San Francisco Animal Care and Control.” Or the one that followed soon after: “We’ll also be getting a 90-pound tortoise from the Lake County animal shelter.” This is, naturally, in addition to the lots of dogs, cats, guinea pigs and other little animals we get routinely from shelters throughout the state.
We’re lucky to have the resources to be able to routinely move in animals from overcrowded shelters. Almost each week, dogs show up from the Central Valley and Oakland. We likewise get lots of demands to take in the more special animals discussed previously.
Marin Humane is geared up to deal with numerous types and, more significantly, has staff with the knowledge to look after them. Our supervisor of animal care, Samantha Winegarner (“Sam”), herself a guardian to several sort of animals, not just has a degree in biology however 27 years of both expert and personal hands-on experience taking care of various types. From snakes and turtles to roosters and chinchillas, and even fish, she’s seen — and looked after — practically every type of family pet.
When asked what among her most tough animal care scenarios was, Winegarner remembers the day Marin Humane was contacted us to rescue 9 parrots, consisting of numerous big macaws, left after their guardian passed away. The birds needed to be eliminated from the home instantly, so time was of the essence.
“I knew we had appropriate housing for the smaller birds, but we had nothing large enough for the big birds, so I decided to convert some of our dog enclosures into macaw condos,” she says. “With a bit of creativity, I was able to ‘MacGyver’ my way through creating suitable habitats for our special guests, racing the clock as the nervous birds waited in their transport carriers. These animals are quite sensitive and fragile so my team and I worked hard to create a good experience for them during their stay with enrichment, nutritious food and, of course, lots of love. It was so gratifying to see them flourish and go on to loving, experienced homes.”
Sometimes our animal visitors need specific veterinary care. In the case of the 9 parrots, we employed a bird vet. And if we’re looking after an ill or hurt barnyard animal like a goat or a pig, we’ll generate a big animal vet to guarantee we’re offering the very best care. Of course, having the ability to generate these specialized vets does feature a price however thanks to our generous neighborhood, we can normally discover look after all our animal visitors.
Beyond offering suitable look after your not-so-average family pet, we likewise hang around with prospective adopters to guarantee they’re informed on how to correctly look after these unique animals. Many individuals are drawn to special animals, like chinchillas, reptiles or parrots, since of how they look or how uncommon they are, however don’t always understand the time and attention they require, nor the details of appropriate real estate, heating, lighting, diet plan and so on. It’s essential for adopters to be gotten ready for these unusual animals and their differing requirements.
While dogs and cats might be our most typical visitors, we’re here to look after (almost) all animals, fantastic and little.
Lisa Bloch is the director of marketing and interactions for Marin Humane, which contributes Tails of Marin short articles and invites animal-related concerns and stories about individuals and animals in our neighborhood. Go to marinhumane.org, discover us on social networks @marinhumane or email [email protected].
