The Windsor/Essex County Humane Society has again partnered with the Bissell Pet Foundation, this time to take in dogs affected by Hurricane Ian.
Ian made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida last week, leaving countless animals and people vulnerable in its path. Some power lines remain down, there is no running water in many places, there is major flooding, and some shelters have been severely damaged.
Shelters that were already packed with animals are struggling to cope with the needs of the rescued, and now homeless, animals coming into them.
A Bissell Pet Foundation flight with more than 120 homeless Florida dogs and cats departed on October 5, and stopped in Virginia, New York, and Ohio to transport animals to receiving organizations.
Executive Director Melanie Coulter says seven of those dogs have come to the WECHS, but adds this transport was different due to the circumstances as usually they have more ability to plan and learn the status of the dogs.
"We have as much as they could provide us with given the crisis they're dealing with at the moment. We are isolating the dogs, keeping them in foster homes with limited access to other animals for two weeks, just to make sure there's nothing medically that's concerning. And to give them an opportunity to get a sense for their behaviour and work with our behaviour team if there's any challenges," she said.
Coulter says the animals on the flight were already in shelters prior to the storms, and the dogs and cats entering shelters in Florida now after the hurricane hit will stay in their communities to hopefully reunite them with their families.
She says moving other animals out of the area frees up shelter capacity to help the urgent animals coming in.
In terms of when people who might be interested in taking in one of the dogs will have an opportunity, Coulter says people should watch their website in the next few weeks.
She says they worked with Bissell Pet Foundation a couple weeks back for a different transport.
"Again a partnership with multiple shelters, but we took in nine dogs then, and those guys were going up for adoption this week. So some of those have been made available for adoption this week. We had another transport we worked with, with a smaller group, and then of course we have local dogs too that need homes."
Coulter says these seven won't be going up for adoption on a specific day.
"Because there are a couple that will take longer likely until they're ready for adoption, due to just some personal medical issues that we want to make sure are resolved before they go up for adoption," she continued. "But people should start looking if they're really interested in one of these dogs to keep an eye out on our website in about two weeks."