MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Animal Care and Control (MACC) has been a busy place since the pandemic began.
"MACC has increased its adoptions significantly over the last few years," said Caroline Hairfield, the shelter's director. "We have set record after record after record after record."
But it still wasn't enough to keep up with record levels of incoming animals. According to MACC, animal intake has increased 30% since the pandemic began, so they are now expanding hours.
"We are currently open 1-5 p.m., Monday through Friday," Hairfield said. "Starting next week, Thursday hours will be extended until 7:30 p.m., to hopefully get more animals out of here."
The change comes at a critical time.
"When people started going back to work, we started seeing more animals coming in, and they were involved in more serious, more dangerous situations," Hairfield said. "And then, when the eviction moratorium expired last year, we started seeing a lot of people who are having to give up their pets because they just can't take them with them."
Hairfield says that increase is also putting a different kind of stress on staff.
"We're not just seeing an increase in friendly, adoptable animals," she said. "We're seeing an increase in animals that are in dire need."
She says caring for those animals has put pressure on surgery teams and investigators who are tasked with cruelty cases and public safety issues.
"As part of the new public safety plan, Minneapolis Animal Control is now investigating all of the animal crimes in the city," she said.
Due to that workload, the additional adoption hours come with a trade-off: no more weekend adoption hours.
Hairfield: ""Prior to COVID we were open every Saturday, but because of staffing we haven't been able to be open every Saturday. We tried a pilot program where we could be open on Saturday a month, but because it wasn't consistent it created some confusion."
Erdahl: "There has been backlash online to the decision to cut Saturdays. What would say to those who were upset saying you're not meeting people where they are, especially if you want to adopt more animals?"
Hairfield: "We want to be open on Saturdays, and as soon as we can, we will. We're working on that.
I think the mayor just announced he's recommending two staff members to clean and care for the animals in the back. That's going to help tremendously, so hopefully in the future we'll be able to get back to Saturday hours. That's our goal. Everybody wants to be open on Saturdays."
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