HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — After about a month without power, the lights at the Guam Animals In Need shelter in Yigo finally turned back on Saturday afternoon. But as the organization begins to resume regular service, GAIN is asking the public to exercise patience.
“We just opened back up (Monday) and both GAIN and (the Spay and Neuter Island Pets Clinic) are having to slowly get back on track due to waiting lists of people who were scheduled to drop off animals and have animals spayed/neutered prior to the typhoon,” GAIN Executive Director Alison Hadley told The Guam Daily Post.
“So we are focusing on getting those people on schedule first, then we will begin taking on new public appointments for both surgeries and drop-offs,” she added.
GAIN will announce on social media SNIP’s rough time frame estimates for scheduling new appointments, according to Hadley, who added that GAIN already has begun going through its current waiting list for animals to be dropped off.
Residents can reach GAIN through Instagram or Facebook, she said.
The lack of power at GAIN had prevented the shelter from supporting the community as it did prior to Typhoon Mawar, Hadley said.
The shelter could not communicate with the community or with the Animal Health and Animal Control division of the Department of Agriculture, or with mayors’ offices regarding the receipt of animals, nor could it have scheduled or updated its database on animals housed at the shelter, Hadley said last week in a press release.
Mayors weren’t able to turn in stray animals because of power and facility issues at the shelter, according to Piti Mayor Jesse Alig, president of the Mayors’ Council of Guam.
Territorial Veterinarian Dr. Mariana Turner lamented the disruption to spay and neutering services, stating in last week’s release that GAIN, SNIP and the Animal Health Division of the Guam Department of Agriculture have worked hard over the last year and a half to decrease the number of strays on Guam by providing low-cost spay and neutering services, as well as increasing the number of Animal Control officers.
Lauren Cabrera, the GAIN board president, said last week that the organization had been trying all avenues possible to reinstate power and resume services, even attempting, without success, to acquire a generator from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Cabrera said last week, when power was still off at the facility, that GAIN leaders were frustrated GAIN services were not being prioritized, while in the meantime, people were getting bitten by strays and animals were being dumped at the shelter on a daily basis.
The Guam Animals In Need animal shelter in Yigo is seen Friday, June 30, 2023. GAIN confirmed it has had its power restored as of Monday, July 3, 2023, and is in the process of resuming services to the public.
