Shelter focused on animals, community

The staff and volunteers at the Panhandle Animal Shelter were sad to read the letter to the editor by Cami Miles (Jan. 13, Daily Bee).

Though we strive for the best care possible we understand that sometimes we will fail. We take every complaint from the community seriously. Over the course of time since the letter was in the paper, we watched the security tapes and spoke to our employees.

On the day Ms. Miles and her family came to our shelter, a little boy was enjoying the community cat rooms. In his exuberance he knocked over a litter pan and then stepped into cat feces. He then proceeded to walk into the other cat rooms.

This does happen from time to time and we are delighted this little boy and his mother came to spend time with our cats. We assume, because we don’t know Ms. Miles, that she and her family went into the cat rooms right after this happened.

Along with volunteers, our employees care for over 100 cats and approximately 50-90 dogs at any given time. We dedicate five hours each morning to cleaning — that is why our shelter opens at noon.

Though we strive to keep everything clean at all times, our animals are in a completely unfamiliar environment. They don’t know the people walking down the wards in front of them, they don’t understand why their living space is so small compared to the great outdoors. This anxiety will cause them to eliminate more often and unfortunately the odor is difficult to control.

In regards to the three employees behind the front desk, we completely own this mistake and sincerely apologize to anyone who has ever been ignored at our facility.

We are now closed on Mondays and have initiated an ongoing training program for our staff and volunteers to help grow our skills and talents, especially in customer service.

The Panhandle Animal Shelter is solely focused on serving our community. We help over 1,200 dogs and cats a year and another 500 plus through our outreach assistance programs. If you feel compelled to help, we would appreciate more volunteers to help with the care of the animals.

Or, if you have experience in a specific area of training and would like to come help train our staff and volunteers, please let us know. Email Sherry at sherry@pasidaho.org if you are interested in volunteering at PAS.

We do appreciate when issues are brought to our attention and will do our best to learn from them. We encourage anyone who has a concern to please visit our shelter. We believe you will see a beautiful facility with lovely animals and maybe you’ll fall in love.

MANDY EVANS

Executive director

Panhandle Animal Shelter