It’s been a commonly held belief, but one that wasn’t really spoken out loud until right after Covid, said Ryan Johnson, operations director at the Park County Animal Shelter in Cody: Problems with pets are a byproduct of the problems people are having. 

“We’ve all always kind of known that and thought that, but the contemporary vision for an animal shelter is this community centric model that focuses on keeping pets with people and out of the shelter system,” he said. 

Johnson, who arrived at the shelter at the end of last year, is embracing that philosophy with a number of new programs aimed at eliminating some of the reasons people give up pets to the shelter. 

The programs are working, he said, as 283 animals have been brought into the shelter so far this year as compared to 319 at the same point last year. 

“So we’ve actually reduced the amount of animals coming into the shelter by 11% without having to turn anybody away,” he said. “So that’s evidence to support how all of these things talk to each other.”

Of those animals taken to the shelter during the first five months of the year, 71 were due to challenges the owners were facing. 

One of the major challenges owners face, not being able to afford pet food, has a simple remedy: The shelter is giving away bags of food to pet owners in need. 

Johnson said owners are very reluctant to give up a pet due to not being able to afford pet food — he said at a previous board meeting they may even sacrifice some of their own needs to keep a pet — so since March 1 the shelter has donated an estimated 800 pounds of pet food to pet owners in the area. 

Separately, during the Operation Kibble Kindness Event this spring in partnership with the Cody Vet Hospital, an estimated 7,000 pounds of pet food were given away in one day. Of those who received pet food, 71% were from Cody and 19% from Powell. 

The goal is to help pet owners  to hold onto their pets. 

“It’s better for the pet, it’s better for the family and it’s better for the shelter, when we do things like that,” Johnson said. 

Giving away pet food is only one of the ways the shelter is trying to keep more pets with their owners and get more shelter pets connected with new owners.  Other programs the shelter has started include: 

• A national Pets for Patriots program designed to support veterans by pairing them with dogs in need of homes. 

• Dog-Day-Out, Johnson said, is like checking out a book at the library, but instead of a book it’s a shelter dog. He said some high school couples have used it as a date, going together to take a dog out for a walk and maybe a pup cup at the coffee shop. Since March 1 there have been 20 such days out. 

• The Safe Haven program provides temporary shelter for pets whose owners are facing an emergency such as domestic violence, homelessness or a mental health crisis. 

• The Disaster Relief Trailer, given to the shelter for free after previously being in Cheyenne, is basically a mobile animal shelter for use in the event of an emergency situation. 

Johnson is also working to form a Park County Animal Welfare Coalition to bring together community stakeholders to support shared interests in animal welfare and find solutions to the problems that result in animals being surrendered to the shelter.