Animals flown from Vermont to Massachusetts after historical flooding

Local News

The Central Vermont Animal Shelter flew most of its animals to Massachusetts to increase their probability of adoption.

Dozens of animals from the Central Vermont Humane Society took a flight to Bedford Wednesday night where they were invited by the MSPCA after unmatched flooding throughout the state resulted in an emergency situation evacuation.

The CVHS, an animal shelter near Barre and Montpelier, was called by the Bissell Pet Foundation as flooding reached historical levels throughout the state early recently. Bissell used to assist in leaving the family pets. 

“My first response was, ‘No, we’re gonna be fine.’ You know, if there’s some flooding in the area, our shelter is at a high enough level,” Erika Holm, a co-executive director at CVHS said. “Then as things became apparent on Monday that it was really at crisis levels and only getting worse, I reached out and said, ‘You know, we probably could use help.’”

While the CVHS didn’t sustain any damages to its building, the neighborhood’s focus was moving to reconstructing after the flooding, implying less adoptions in the coming weeks. Emergency efforts such as this aren’t uncommon in the middle of natural catastrophes, Holms said.

The CVHS will stay open by appointment just for the future. 

Some animals remained behind in the Vermont shelter as a flight either wasn’t a choice due to size or concerns of psychological distress. A chinchilla, 9 dogs, and 11 cats were a few of the lots of animals on the Bissell sponsored flight to Massachusetts. 

“We already had a routine transport running from Louisiana to Connecticut. So all we needed to do was call our flight partner and ask them to skip over to Vermont and pick up the pets and bring them to our animal incident management partner which is MSPCA,” Kim Alboum, director of shelter outreach and policy advancement for Bissell, said. 

The animals being carried had actually remained in the shelter prior to the flooding started, implying there was no threat of unintentionally sending out missing out on family pets throughout state lines. The animals will be distributed in between the MSPCA’s shelters in Boston, Methuen, Salem, and Cape Cod. 

“Our mission is to help shelters all over the country and we do that through this program, where it’s really shelters helping shelters,” Alboum said. 

All brand-new animals completed the 48-hour quarantine duration Friday night to guarantee they are safe for adoption. 

From July 10-July 16, the MSPCA is hosting a “Go Big AND Go Home” occasion where adoption costs for big dogs ages 1 year and up will be waived. The occasion intends to “find homes for as many dogs as possible,” according to the MSPCA website. 

As of May 26, MSPCA shelters were at 90% capability in general. Despite this, Director of Operations at MSPCA’s Cape Cod shelter, Colleen Evans said the shelters were prepared to take in the couple of furry good friends from Vermont. 

“When emergencies happen, that’s what we’re there for.”