BILLINGS — According to a Saturday Facebook post by the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter (YVAS), the facility is unable to house lost or homeless pets at this time.
The post comes less than two weeks after a routine drug incineration mishap, which resulted in 14 sick employees at the shelter. Since Sep. 11, YVAS employees have been utilizing an education office on Grand Avenue, as the animal shelter is uninhabitable.
According to YVAS' Facebook post, the city of Billings does not have a current shelter for lost or homeless pets. On Saturday, MTN called a YVAS employee who confirmed that all animals who were previously at the shelter are now in foster care.
According to the post, Animal Control will only be responding to calls of animals that appear to be vicious.
"This leaves a heartbreaking gap in services, as reuniting lost pets with their families has always been at the very heart of our mission. Knowing that our community currently has no safe haven for lost pets shatters us, and we also recognize the strain this is placing on other local rescues and veterinary clinics. Many folks are leaning on local vet clinics to house lost animals, but please be kind and understanding if they are unable to do so. Providing shelter is a huge undertaking, and for clinics it comes with significant liability and burden on their daily practice," the post writes.
YVAS is currently accepting donations to build a new shelter, although an employee was unable to confirm the progress of that shelter on Saturday.
In the post, YVAS encourages Billings residents to microchip and tag their pets, to make sure their pets are not left unattended, to leave stray cats alone, to file a lost pet report at this link, to use a microchip scanner when finding lost pets, and to join the Lost/Found Pets of Billings MT Facebook page in the meantime.
See the YVAS Facebook post below:
Also on Saturday, the Billings Police Department made a Facebook post stating that since the incinerator incident, residents have been taking lost or homeless pets to nearby veterinary clinics.
In the post, Sgt. Jeff Stovall asks residents to no longer bring pets to those facilities at this time.
See the Billings Police Department Facebook post here:
See MTN's previous reporting about the situation below:
