{"id":372387,"date":"2022-07-15T06:04:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T20:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=372387"},"modified":"2022-07-15T06:04:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T20:04:24","slug":"sca-hits-on-idea-of-virtual-animal-shelter-in-lieu-of-physical-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/sca-hits-on-idea-of-virtual-animal-shelter-in-lieu-of-physical-one\/","title":{"rendered":"SCA hits on idea of \u2018virtual animal shelter\u2019 in lieu of physical one"},"content":{"rendered":"
Saipan Cares for Animals\u00a0shelter\u00a0manager Aileen Garcia is seen greeting the dogs that have been relocated temporarily to the new Mayor\u2019s Animal\u00a0Shelter\u00a0in As Perdido.\u00a0(Leigh Gases)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the many roadblocks and hindrances that Saipan Cares for Animals had gone through in the past year with finding and running a permanent animal shelter, SCA director Beth Pliscou has come up with what she calls a \u201cvirtual animal shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n

This way, instead of SCA sheltering and taking in stray dogs and cats, it will be the community that will \u201cstep in and do the sheltering part,\u201d while SCA will focus on offering free vaccines, the anti-worm medication Bravecto, tick and worm medication, and spay and neuter surgery for its rescues.<\/p>\n

Basically, \u201ceverything we gave to our shelter dogs before adopting out we will give free to the animals that are being sheltered by our community,\u201d said Pliscou.<\/p>\n

Rather than seeing this as a compromise, Pliscou believes \u201cthis to be a much better solution for all on Saipan to pull together to fix our overpopulation and homeless [animal] problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

What led to this direction is because of the problems SCA faced such as \u201czoning, then bird mitigation. We paid rent\u2014$7,500\u2026for a year [on a property] that we were never able to clear or even walk on,\u201d said Pliscou.<\/p>\n

Moreover, \u201crunning a physical shelter, like we had in As Gonno, is extremely expensive. A money pit. We have our clinic now in Gualo Rai and it is doing very well. Because we don\u2019t have to care for the shelter animals morning and afternoon, we can be open [for] long hours to better serve the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pliscou told Saipan Tribune that opening the clinic for longer hours benefits the community and the staff as it does not get as crowded unlike if it were to be open for limited hours only. \u201cThis is all much more pleasant for the staff,\u201d said Pliscou.<\/p>\n

However, one member of the community who declined to be named expressed concerns and disappointment about not being able to freely give up or surrender the many stray cats or dogs roaming around the island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people don\u2019t have space in their homes to care for animals or some landlords don\u2019t allow pets, so the strays might continue to be neglected if there\u2019s no home for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pliscou said that unfortunately there\u2019s a limited number of people who are designated fosters or adoption homes for cats and dogs, but hopes this program will create more homes to help animals when needed.<\/p>\n

The SCA clinic is open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm. Sundays are for emergencies only. Contact the clinic at (670) 488-2751 for the latest information on their animal medication and for emergencies at (670) 285-5448.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the many roadblocks and hindrances that Saipan Cares for Animals had gone through in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":372392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9405],"class_list":["post-372387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-sca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}