With the region facing several devesting wildfires, mandatory evacuations have displaced many animals. Washoe County’s Animal Services has set up two animal shelters, one for large animals at the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center, and another for small pets at Washoe County Regional Animal Services on Longely Lane.
“We are concentrating just on animals that are in the red zone here at the shelter because they're the most immediate need,” said Tammy Jennings, the Assistant Director of Animal Services. “Anybody in a yellow zone who wants to prepare for it, we suggest you look into friends, family, other areas.”
As of Wednesday morning, the Events Center is hosting more than 400 large animals like horses and cattle, and the Longley shelter has about 70 cats, dogs, and chickens. Neither are at capacity due to their policy of only taking in animals from the red evacuation ‘Go Now’ zones.
Those in need can show up to the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center at any time -- because county is staffing it 24/7. The Longley Lane shelter is open until 10:00 p.m. each night to accept pets from evacuation zones.
Some folks have had to leave their homes in the middle of the night, like Brandi Coleman.
“It was at 11:00 at night, so it was kind of difficult. But the whole neighborhood, all my neighbors, some of my friends from Spanish Springs, they all came over to help us. So, it was really easy to get them in and get them here. But just very stressful,” said Coleman.
Both locations are providing food and other supplies needed for the animals in their car but ask owners to bring any specialty supplies along with the pets.
Animal services is still running all of their normal services alongside the evacuation operations.
Questions about the shelters can be directed to the Animal Services dispatch line at (775) 322-3647. Additional updates have been posted on their social media pages here.
The County also wants to clarify that they are not turning anyone away at either location, they just have to limit animals they take in to be from the red evacuation zones and also have to work around previously scheduled events at the Livestock Events Center, which is impacting where folks can park their trailers.
