In our last article, Midcoast Humane’s social work intern, Laurel Auth, shared her experiences working alongside our shelter staff, assisting community members who needed our services.

For years, having a social worker on-site at the shelter has been a dream of mine, an idea that first took root in the misty past of the 2010s. It just made so much sense. We frequently hear about issues our patrons face that are simply beyond our capacity to help with. Often, the pet is merely the canary in the coal mine. For individuals grappling with housing or job insecurity, or mental health challenges, their pets can become the one aspect of a complex problem they feel they can “solve” by surrendering them. We often learn that people are losing their homes prior to their actual move-out date. I’ve repeatedly thought, as people told their stories over the years, how invaluable it would be to have someone embedded in the shelter who understands available social systems and possesses the training to navigate delicate conversations, connecting these individuals with the resources they need.

This year, that dream finally became a reality. With the support and oversight of a local licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) involved in our foster care program, we were able to welcome a University of New England social work student as an intern.

Laurel embodied everything I had envisioned: She was kind, empathetic, eager to learn and genuinely wanted to help. Our staff embraced her as one of our own, and she quickly immersed herself in the shelter, seeking ways to assist the daily stream of guardians surrendering pets to our Brunswick shelter.

A few weeks ago, Laurel came to my office. While happy to be here, she didn’t feel she was helping people as much as we’d hoped. When I asked for more details, she explained that although she knows where the resources are, many aren’t available quickly enough to help our patrons or their pets. For instance, there’s a significant waiting list for low-cost public housing in our area, sometimes extending a year or more. Such resources are not helpful to someone losing their housing at the end of the month. Furthermore, as Laurel highlighted in her article, many simply cannot afford the rising rent in our area. For someone facing the choice between homelessness or sleeping on a friend’s couch if they give up their pet, it’s often no real choice at all. Being unhoused with a pet presents immense challenges for people and can be incredibly difficult for a pet accustomed to having a home.

Financially, pets are a burden. I hate to put it so bluntly, but our pets can’t go to work and earn money. They are entirely dependent on us for their care, and when someone is struggling to keep a roof over their head, even a small mouth to feed can feel overwhelming, not to mention the potential cost of a significant medical emergency.

Midcoast Humane runs a program that helps community members with one-time veterinary costs. This could be de-quilling a dog who tangled with a porcupine or setting a broken leg for a cat hit by a car. We offer this because, in the long run, it costs the shelter less to help with a vet bill than to house and rehome a pet. Not to mention, we want loved pets to remain with their families whenever possible. However, this program is expensive. Last year, a wonderful family made a generous gift, projected to cover a year’s worth of program costs. We have already exhausted that gift, and it’s only July. Calls for help are increasing, and pet guardians who adore their pets but can’t afford rising vet care costs are calling every single day, some from as far away as Aroostook County. We’ve had to implement some heartbreaking parameters around this program, limiting it to the 39 towns we serve, but pets don’t understand town boundaries and neither do the hearts of desperate pet parents. We have a fantastic network of vet clinics that partner with us to make their services more affordable for this program, but vet clinics, like us, have staff to pay, equipment to maintain and lights to keep on; they can only offer so much.

I often remind my team that just because I have an idea doesn’t mean it will always work out. We try things, and sometimes they go as planned, while other times we gain new information and must adjust our course. This is one of those times. Having a social work intern didn’t pan out exactly as I’d hoped, but I now have crucial information to guide our future admission diversion programs. We must accept that we are unlikely to be able to offer resources that effectively help individuals experiencing housing issues — a category that, unfortunately, accounts for 60% of our owner surrenders. By accepting this reality, we can plan accordingly and allocate resources where we know they can achieve substantive good.

Jess Townsend is executive director of Midcoast Humane.