CHINOOK, Mont. (NMB) – The P.A.W.S. (Pets Are Worth Saving) Animal Shelter in Chinook is continuing to serve the public as 2022 begins.
Manager Alissa Hewitt says 2021 was a record-breaking year for the shelter, and they plan on continuing that momentum into 2022.
“We had record-breaking adoptions, record-breaking spay/neuter assistance, we held our first spay/neuter clinic here in Chinook that we got to host. Donations were also at an all-time high as far as supplies and monetary. Our grants were second best in all the years that P.A.W.S. has existed. So it’s been a really record-breaking year. We’re really happy about how our fencing project turned out as well. Lots of changes around the shelter, new volunteers. It’s just been an incredible, mind-blowing year, for sure.”
One new addition that is coming to the shelter is the building of new kennels, including one for quarantining dogs.
“Right now we have to board them at a vet’s office until it’s safe to bring them in, and that’s a big expense for us. So we’re really happy to be getting a quarantine kennel so we don’t have to do that anymore. And the rest of the kennels will be new, kind of a fiber-glass type thing. That will help to allow the dogs to be less anxious when new dogs come in, so they can’t really see them. If they can’t see them, then they aren’t too stressed out, so that is going to help on a lot of different levels. It’s also much easier to clean that type of material than chain-link.”
Hewitt says they are working to schedule spay/neuter clinics in the spring in Chinook, Harlem, and on the Fort Belknap Reservation.
To contact P.A.W.S., visit https://pawsofchinook.rescuegroups.org/.
