The Miami-Dade Animal Services Department focuses on saving the lives of abandoned, lost and mistreated animals. Inside the West Dade shelter, you can find a pet adoption and protection center where people can report animal cruelty, adopt or search for their lost pet.
Because of COVID-19, Miami-Dade Animal Services has dramatically changed. Before the pandemic, it had no restrictions on the number of people allowed inside the kennels. Now, it limits the number of people who can be in the display rooms to maintain social distancing. Moreover, people are required to wear masks inside the facility at all times and their temperature has to be taken at the door.
Flora Beal, animal services communication officer, is a Florida International University alumni. She has more than 20 years of experience in communications and crisis management. Now she is responsible for creating, directing, implementing and evaluating strategic content that would help with the animal adoptions.
Because of COVID-19, the county’s communications department also had to adapt to continue with adoptions, they decided to showcase every Thursday a Facebook live that features cats and dogs available for adoption. This way it is easier for people to see and get to know more about the pets they would like to adopt.
This solution turned out to be amazing for animal services. Even though it had to deal with many changes, adoptions went up rather than down. Visit the facility and you’ll find more kennels empty than full.
