IDAHO FALLS ANIMAL SHELTER, IDAHO FALLS, ID

8 - PEAK PETS • JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, June 24, 2020 Adoption Continued from 3 owner-surrendered animals, Adam Galadima, one of two community service officers who run the shelter.

But even those numbers are declining.

“We have seen a reduction in animals being surrendered, we’ve seen a reduction in our animals being returned and we’ve also seen a reduction in the number being impounded,” Galadima said.

He credits the changes to owner education — a focus for all animal welfare organizations — and the community’s robust spay/neuter programs.

“All animals are spay/neutered now,” he said.

Owners coming to pick up impounded animals are educated on spay/neuter options, Galadima said, and “if an animal becomes part of the Jackson/Teton County Animal Shelter program, the next day the animal gets scheduled for neuter or spay.” Space for pets in need

Such changes have not only meant fewer problems with stray dogs and cats and homes for local pets in need of one, but also an opportunity for Jackson to aid other communities. Having successfully addressed its own pet overpopulation, it has shifted its sights to providing relief to others.

The Animal Adoption Center serves as a receiving shelter, essentially a place for rescues to transport their animals for adoption. It partners with PAWS of Jackson Hole and the Jackson/Teton County Animal Shelter to pluck a few animals from nearby and overcrowded shelters — Star Valley or Idaho Falls, for example — that are brought to Jackson for adoption.

Only three or four come in at once, because the shelter is still responsible for holding Teton County animals, and PAWS foots the bill so taxpayer dollars aren’t diverted from the municipal shelter’s base mission.

But by far the leader in this relief effort is the Animal Adoption Center. The nonprofit, which celebrated its 15-year anniversary in 2019, works with state and regional rescues, shelters and organizations to move dozens of dogs and cats into Jackson annually, offering reprieve for overburdened shelters and sanctuary to animals at risk for euthanasia.

“It’s a paw-in-a-paw relationship that we have with the Adoption Center,” Farr said.

KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE Jenna Martin, adoption counselor at the Animal Adoption Center, takes a photo of Pretzel, one of the two rescue dogs delivered via Dog is My CoPilot, in the new AAC van before it left Driggs-Reed Memorial Airport for Jackson. The two dogs were dropped off by pilot Craig Colton, who has been flying for Dog is My CoPilot for about five months.

“They couldn’t have the impact that they have without PAWS getting us to a community that doesn’t face the same problems that the Idaho Falls community or the Lander community faces.

“We have resources out there for people who own animals that aren’t reproducing, and they’re staying with their families.” More homes than dogs

In mid-March the Animal Adoption Center was forced to close its doors like other businesses trying to weather the pandemic. But its work didn’t slow. If anything, it ramped up.

Since it closed to the public March 14 the Animal Adoption Center received 110 foster applications and 280 adoption applications for dogs and cats. This year has been, by far, its busiest of the past five, with 159 adoptions between January and May, compared to 81 for the same period the year before and 65 between January and May 2018.

“I think COVID has played a huge factor for those who have been thinking of adopting and wanting to adopt but they never had the time,” Executive Director Carrie Boynton said. “It’s a great time to potty train a puppy. It’s a great time to introduce a new family member.”

While other rescues and shelters have been hit hard by the pandemic — many seeking financial aid from national funders, some closing their doors entirely — the surge in local interest and support has allowed the Animal Adoption Center to increase its relief of other shelters inundated with too many animals and not enough homes.

“Nationally intake numbers are hugely declined,” Boynton said. “But we’ve taken the opposite approach to try to really help the places that need it most.”

Like PAWS the Animal Adoption Center has also been a heavy hitter in curbing pet overpopulation both locally and statewide. Since launching Spay/Neuter Wyoming 11 years ago, over 14,000 animals statewide have been spayed or neutered through low-income vouchers honored by a dozen participating veterinarians, as well as biannual spay/neuter clinics on the Wind River Reservation, that perform on average 400 spay/neuter procedures each visit, Boynton said.

With a new “rescue mobile” recently acquired, center staff expect to be of further aid to pets in need, transporting animals to spay/ neuter clinics and moving more dogs and cats into Jackson from overcrowded shelters.

“Transport is the lifeline and the teamwork that it takes to make it happen — it’s truly the essence of rescue work,” Boynton said. “It’s so incredibly important to have trusted partners and to be able to collaborate and do what’s best — not just in our county, our region and our state. but to be able to give animals a second chance.”

The Animal Adoption Center also works to breathe new life into shelters across the state through the Wyoming Shelter Project, which guides other organizations toward lower euthanasia rates through increased spay/ neuter programming. At the Rock Springs Animal Shelter, for example, feline euthanasia dropped to 16% from 70% and canine euthanasia dropped to 2% from 30%. All animals adopted out of the facility are now spayed or neutered and the facility’s intake has reduced by 40% — all since the partnership began in 2014, according to statistics provided by the Animal Adoption Center.

In addition to working with shelters in Wyoming — including the Lander Pet Connection, Animal Humane Association of Star Valley, Paws for Life Animal League in Riverton, Green River Animal Shelter and the aforementioned Rock Springs Animal Shelter — it also receives animals from facilities in Idaho.

When it comes to a long-distance haul, it collaborates with Dog Is My CoPilot to fly in pets from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. ‘Big Dog,’ big flights

Dog Is My CoPilot has been landing in Teton Valley to hand off animals to the Animal Adoption Center since the transport organization first took flight in 2012.

As the years have passed, Dog Is My CoPilot has increased its flights, connecting with nearly 100 municipal shelters and nonprofit organizations to move animals around 15 states. The plane is the “Big Dog,” a retrofitted 12-passenger Cessna 208B Grand Caravan that fits up to 251 animals if Dr. Peter Rork has maxed out his Tetris skills in balancing a mix of dog and cat kennels.

This year is likely to tally up the most flights flown since the organization began, with a Petco Foundation grant allowing for See AdoptiON on 9