March 23, 2020 (East St. Louis, IL) – One local East St. Louis animal shelter has emptied ALL of their kennels because of a tremendous outpouring of support from the metro area community.
“I am so relieved and happy to say that we moved all of our shelter pets into foster homes. We haven’t closed our doors, we’ve simply turned our community into a remote pet shelter,” said Jamie Case, Executive Director at Gateway Pet Guardians.
Gateway Pet Guardians put out a plea for emergency fosters homes last week and within days they had hundreds of people wanting to help.
“It is incredible and humbling to see how quickly the community responded to our plea for help. I can’t think of a better way to be quarantined than to snuggle up with a shelter pet,” said Case.
Gateway Pet Guardians has a waiting list of people waiting to welcome a foster pet into their home and they are supplying all of the necessary supplies needed to care for each pet.
“We are currently managing well over 100+ pets in foster homes and we are intaking more dogs from St. Clair County Animal Services tomorrow,” said Case.
Gateway Pet Guardians will be limiting pet intake to sick and injured pets and pregnant and nursing moms.
Gateway Pet Guardians is also encouraging the public to consider adopting a pet now. They are offering “social distancing friendly adoptions’, so adopters do not have to come to the shelter or meet in a public building to adopt a pet.
“As fundraising events are being cancelled, we are in need of donations to continue our lifesaving work,” said Case.
If you are interested in making a donation, please visit https://www.gatewaypets.org/why/.
Donations can also be mailed to:
Gateway Pet Guardians
725 N. 15th Street
East St. Louis, IL 62205
Gateway Pet Guardians is also in need of supplies to support all of the pets in foster homes. The items most needed are medium/large wire dog crates, medium martingale collars and pet food for our pet food pantry. Items can be purchased from our Amazon Wishlist at https://www.gatewaypets.org/donate-now/gpg-wish-list/.
About Gateway Pet Guardians
Gateway Pet Guardians is a 501(c)3 nonprofit animal shelter whose passionate and dedicated staff and volunteers care for animals on the streets of East St. Louis, Illinois and surrounding areas. Our mission is to end homelessness for animals in the Metro East through rescue, rehabilitation, adoption, community outreach and education.