The Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County will be putting up instructions on how to admit animals to the facility after hours.
This comes after a female Mastiff was left outside of a side entrance of the building late Monday night and was only found early Tuesday morning by a member of the staff, who could not enter the building because the dog was tied to the door with a small leash. A post was shared over 5,800 times from the group’s Facebook page, seeking information about the two people shown in screenshots of security footage.
Executive Director Sally Scott says the lack of instructions on the exterior of the building was an “oversight” on their part, but both entrances will have signs that give a non-emergency numbers to the Warsaw Police Department and the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office. “If surrendering a stray animal after shelter hours, please contact local authorities to meet you at the shelter and place the surrendered animal inside the building.”
Both police departments have access to the building after hours in case an animal has to get dropped off at the building.
An update was recently posted to the AWL Facebook page saying they received a phone call from the two that dropped the dog off with “information that we so gravely needed.” The post also went on to state that the AWL will not be pressing any charges.
Scott wanted to stress the importance of information about animals that are brought to the AWL.
“We want people to know and understand that information is very important. Knowing where a pet has come from, does the pet have any allergies, has it been aggressive, has it bitten someone? Is the pet updated on vaccinations? When we get stray animals that haven’t been vetted, that is one of our processes. We need to know these to keep our staff and the rest of the public safe.”
Scott learned that the dog was not microchipped and it has gotten less agitated and stressed. “We are working to build the dogs trust to let the dog know it’s in a safe place, that no one is going to hurt it, it’s warm, dry, getting food and water. We have some volunteers that are well accustomed to large breeds that are going to be coming in on a regular basis to spend time with her.”
One of the common comments that the AWL saw on the Facebook post was a question about a “drop off box,” similar to those of the Safe Haven Baby Boxes at fire departments.
“We had done that at our previous shelter and those cages were abused. We felt it was safer for an animal to come directly into the building from a person. This way we can get any information that they have. Even knowing about the temperament of the animal, if it’s friendly, shy, etc.”
“We’ve had instances where we found out later that the animal has bitten some and that puts our staff at risk not knowing there is a potentially aggressive situation. There were times that animals would escapes the drop off cages and other times that people would take animals from the drop off cages.”
During regular business hours, signs are posted along a pathway on the south end of the building that points people to a door where animals can be surrendered. There is also an area on their website that gives information about recently cats and dogs that have come in. You can find that here.
If you need to drop an animal off at the AWL after hours, you can contact the Warsaw Police Department at 574-372-9511 or the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office at 866-322-5857.
In all, Scott says that if anyone has to drop off an animal, give all the known information you can. “Information (about the animal) is of utmost importance.”
