You have no income and have to choose between feeding your children or your furry family members. What do you do? Maybe you have to move and can’t take the whole family with you. Pets not allowed. These are real world consequence of the government shutdown.
The number of lost government paychecks effects a chain of others, contractors, businesses, and workers who are shut down or cut back and held hostage to the situation. 800,000 is the tip of a larger hit on the economy that will continue to grow with each missed check. If this continues homes and even businesses will be lost and not the least, hearts will be broken.
The King County Animal Authority reminds us that family stress leads to animal stress. The authority provides free food at their several locations and encourages people to take advantage of it. They normally support about 2000 animals a week but they are receiving a growing up-tick of food requests and inquiries about accepting animals. The goal is to support animals and their humans in-place rather than have animals go hungry or be abandoned. As you can guess this is straining their resources. The Authority requests donations of dog kibble, wet dog food, kitty kibble and cat toys but cash is most effective since they buy wholesale.
That’s the just Seattle area. The lockout is a national emergency that affects animals and their humans in every district nationwide. Areas with a large number of federal workers are being hit the worst.
Whether you are a shutdown victim of not, if you need pet food please Google the phone number of your local animal control office. It may be under your city or a regional name. If they don’t have a feeding program maybe the can refer you to other shelters that will help. If you can’t find a number call the business number of the local police (not 911) and they will help.
If you wish to help pets contact the same people.
Our local food bank also accepts and dispenses pet food. If you are a food bank client ask if they have pet food.
If you wish to donate in this way call your local food bank about their policy. Feel free to do a two-fer and drop off people food along with bags of pet food. Remember that many grocery stores also have food bank drop offs which makes things simple.
Since no one else is talking about this aspect of the emergency please share your concerns about the plight of furry family members and their humans with your social media contacts. I am especially interested in any contact you make with a local agency.
I‘m sorry that I will not be available when this publishes but promise to read all your input. I also promise to donate a large bag each of cat and dog kibble to the food bank pick up today. Thanks in advance.
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I have no affiliation with the King County Animal Authority. This diary was inspired by a radio interview yesterday afternoon.
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This is not intended as a political diary. We all know that backstory and there are dozens of other diaries available for those comments. Could we please focus on helping families in need?
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