TAUNTON – Pets won’t be left out in the cold when it comes to finding shelter from Thursday’s storm.
Paw’s Pantry is teaming up with TEMA to run an emergency pet shelter as part of the city’s larger emergency shelter at Parker Middle School as a Nor’easter bears down on the region and temperatures threaten to plummet into the danger zone in the storm’s aftermath.
“No one should have to stay in the cold because they don’t want to leave their pets behind,” said Riley Parker Morgan, founder of Paw’s Pantry, a non-profit pet food pantry run out of First Parish Church in Taunton.
Morgan was originally planning to open a temporary pet shelter at First Parish, but when she found out the city’s emergency shelter will be pet-friendly, she switched gears and offered to help run it and supply it with food, litter and other items.
Taunton Emergency Management Agency Director Rick Ferreira said pets are welcome at the emergency shelter, which will open at 7 a.m. Thursday and remain open as needed until 7 a.m. Sunday.
But only service animals will be allowed to stay in the area where people are sleeping. Other pets will have to stay in a designated area, he said.
“When communities open up a shelter, a big obstacle is getting people there,” Ferreira said.
One of the major hindrances to getting people to make use of a shelter in major storms like Hurricane Katrina is that don’t want to leave their pets behind, he said. His goal is to remove that obstacle.
“We will do everything we can to accommodate a pet,” Ferreira said.
Morgan said feline guests will each have their own large dog kennel outfitted with a cat litter box, food, toys and a bed or blanket, as supplies last. Dogs will also be housed in kennels and there will be volunteers on hand to help walk and care for them as needed.
Pet owners are not required to bring their own supplies. That might be difficult for many people in an emergency and Morgan said she doesn’t want that to prevent people from utilizing the shelter.
“People don’t have to being anything but their pets,” Morgan said.
But if pet owners are able to bring supplies such as a kennel, litter, food, a litter box, toys and a favorite blanket, that would be a big help – as supplies are limited, Morgan said.
And if the pets are on special diets or medication, their owners should be sure to bring those along, Morgan said.
Morgan said she runs a similar service after fires and other emergencies if the Taunton Animal Shelter is full.
She had already heard from a woman Wednesday who said the pipes had burst in her home and she needed someone to care for two cats and a rabbit.
Paw’s Pantry, run by First Parish Church on Church Green, provides pet food and supplies for people who are homeless, low income, veterans, disabled and elderly.
Morgan, a Taunton resident and former animal control officer in Seekonk, founded the pantry in 2016 after seeing a need in the community.
It is open every Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon and also makes deliveries monthly to people who are house-bound and has pick up days in Fall River, Attleboro, Braintree, Seekonk and Cape Cod.
For more information about the emergency shelter, call TEMA at 508-821-1026.
For more information about Paw’s Pantry call (774) 776-3554.
Morgan said the pet emergency shelter serves a double purpose.
It keeps people from making the terrible decision of not seeking shelter themselves because they can’t bring their pets along.
And it also keeps the pets from being left behind.
“All kinds of things can happen. The sprinkler system can go off when pipes burst. Now you have an animal alone in a wet home with no heat. That’s a recipe for disaster,” Morgan said.
