BEND, OR -- The Humane Society of Central Oregon is cutting back business hours to accommodate fewer staff. But HSCO's Lynne Ouchida says they’re still providing full-time care of the animals. The Bend shelter remains closed Sundays and holidays. "Mondays, we’ve gone to essential services only, with the doors closed," Ouchida tells KBND News. "What that means is: strays will be taken in, still; animal control is still going to be bringing in strays. People who find an animal, we’re going to help them and animals who need to be returned to their owners."

Adoptions are available Tuesday through Friday, but by appointment only, just like during the pandemic, "I think it’s a routine that, hopefully, we just need to remind people we are open; there’s animals that need to be adopted. Absolutely, come in and spend time and look for them. Actually, the quality of adoptions and the customer services you’re getting now is greatly improved from what we were experiencing the last few months: long lines, overstressed staff, not good customer service, and that’s not what we wanted to provide our community." Saturdays, the shelter's busiest day, HSCO is open for the public to drop-in. 

While the staffing shortage is tough, Ouchida says HSCO is still much better off than other shelters around the country. "We are getting a lot of requests from as far away as Florida. We have partners, and one of our big partners is in northern California, and so we do take in what we can, when we can. We can’t take the amount of animals that they need us to take - maybe not necessarily for space, but for staff to provide the level of care that we need to do, and we want and that our standards are, we can’t do it with [this] level of staffing."

Listen to our full conversation with Lynne Ouchida at our Podcast Page.