And that’s mandated by the authorities,” he said.

“The only other time is when we have dogs that are in bite hold and they’re awaiting the verdict of the courts. That just goes against everything I believe in, and everything our staff and our board members believe in.”Īnimals are euthanized only when a veterinarian recommends it for animals that are too sick or injured to be treated successfully. We do not have animals put down to make room.

That wasn’t always the case here,” he said. When space does become available, people on the waiting list are contacted to determine if they still have the dog or cat, and if they still want to bring it to the shelter. That cuts down on the space available for other animals, and with a limited amount of room, GCAO has a waiting list. “We always have to have room for them,” Hein said. The shelter has agreements with Grant County and the city of Moses Lake to house animals picked up from those jurisdictions. “We have to be very cautious when we take strays in, because the last thing we want to do is not have the space to properly isolate animals when they first come in.” “When cats come in, they’re normally strays, and there’s a much greater chance to have some sort of communicable disease,” Hein said. “We can safely hold 39 dogs, and as far as cats, I would say about 36 cats safely,” Hein said.įor the shelter, “safely” means a limited number of dogs sharing a kennel, or in the case of cats, sharing a cage. Even though it’s been expanded over time, there are only so many dogs and cats it can accommodate. The current GCAO shelter was built as part of Larson Air Force Base in the 1940s or 1950s. “When it comes to dogs, those are normally owner surrenders.” “Normally strays that come in are cats,” he said. The staff has worked with Percy, and he has improved to the point where he will sleep overnight – alone – in another room. One of the aftereffects is that Percy doesn’t like being around other dogs, and lives in the office most of the time.

Percy was left outside in a crate during a storm, and was so frightened he almost chewed through the crate. Hein used Percy, the dog living in the shelter office most of the time, as an example. He has learned about symptoms and treatment of animal diseases, he said, as well as the behavior of the animals. “I’ve learned a lot, definitely,” he said. It’s different when he’s helping run the shelter. But when his own animals got sick he took them to the veterinarian. He was and is a pet owner, he said, and had adopted dogs from the shelter. “I thought this was a huge opportunity and a large challenge to make things better,” Hein added. What attracted me to this opportunity was that this was a way to help the entire community of Grant County.” “When I owned the restaurant, I fed a lot of good food to people, which I also took a lot of pride in. That was a service to my clients,” he said. “When I was in mortgages, I know I helped a lot of people get into homes and refinance their homes. He said his previous experience was good preparation for his new job. So they decided to separate the two positions.”

“But then those people were also having to deal with the business side, the fundraising, and it’s a lot. They always had people like that,” he said. “They (GCAO) always had people that had more of the animal (experience). “Most of those positions were me being self-employed, so I had management history,” he said. He had never worked with animals, or at an animal shelter, he said. Hein said he worked as a mortgage broker, owned his own restaurant and later his own bookkeeping business, and was in sales before coming to GCAO. Hein said GCAO is looking for a new shelter manager. It’s a new position for GCAO previously the administrator was also the shelter manager. Hein was hired as the new GCAO administrator in late November. MOSES LAKE - Darrin Hein said there’s been a learning curve in his new job at Grant County Animal Outreach.

Animal outreach