Animal Resource Center to resume normal hours June 1

ajc.com

The Montgomery County Animal Resource Center will return to its normal hours and services on June 1, but will limit visitors and continue to encourage social distancing.

The shelter previously reduced hours and staffing during to the coronavirus pandemic.

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The shelter will be limited to five visitors at a time with visits lasting 10 minutes.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The shelter is also open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday for lost and found searches only.

Anyone who finds a stray dog should attempted to find its owner by checking with neighbors, posting on social media and calling the shelter for help.

If the owner isn’t found, call ARC at 937-898-4457 and an animal care and control officer will be dispatched.

“It’s often best for the animal to be returned to its home as quickly as possible, before bringing it to the shelter,” said ARC Director Robert Gruhl. “Our goal is to make every dog’s stay in our facility as short as possible by either finding the owner or adopting into a new home.”

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To help connect pets to their forever phone, ARC created a foster program that will include a network of foster families who can temporarily care for animals in their own homes before they are adopted.

Applications to join the foster program are available at www.mcanimals.org/get-involved/.

“We’re excited about both the foster and volunteer programs,” Gruhl said. “There are a lot of people in the community who want to help these animals, and these programs will help us expand the reach of our shelter. Both will allow us to better accomplish our goal of placing animals into loving, permanent homes.”

Anyone who wants to adopt a pet can visit www.mcanimals.org to view all the shelter's adoptable animals.