Animal News
Dallas' animal shelter takes steps to deal with COVID staffing issues
The pandemic is impacting another part of life in Dallas: namely, the hours of operation at the city's animal shelter.
According to a release, Dallas Animal Services will be temporarily closing on Thursdays due to staffing problems. The problems are twofold:
- staffing deficiencies caused by the national workforce shortage
- the rise in staff illness due to COVID-19
Dallas Animal Services initially called it a temporary closure, but now says it will be closing to the public on Thursdays until further notice.
Doing so will allow DAS to adjust the schedules of customer service staff to ensure more appropriate coverage and a higher level of resident service throughout the rest of the week.
Despite the closure, pet owners looking to reclaim lost pets will still be able to call the pet support desk to complete the reclaim process.
And despite the staffing shortages, the DAS Field Team will continue to operate seven days a week.
However, response times are expected to be longer than normal, particularly for lower priority calls, until these staffing challenges resolve.
New hours open to the public and offering online adoptions are:
- Sunday-Wednesday 1 pm-6 pm
- Friday 1 pm-6 pm
- Saturday 11 am-6 pm