Help give pets in the community full bowls this season with Pocatello Animal Services food drive
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POCATELLO – Pocatellans can help keep local pets from going hungry this holiday season by donating to the city’s pet food drive.
Pocatello Animal Services, the agency in charge of running the animal shelter, officially started its annual Holiday Pet Food Drive on Friday, and it will last until January 4. The food drive raises thousands of dollars of pet food every year, which local pet owners can access to help keep their animals fed.
“We just want to make sure we’re helping all pets in our community have full bowls and not go hungry,” said Animal Services Program Coordinator Sarah Moore.
Moore told EastIdahoNews.com that around 3,600 pounds of dog food is typically collected, which is worth around $4000.
To donate, people can drop off pet food at the following locations:
City of Pocatello locations:
- Animal Shelter, 3100 Avenue of the Chiefs
- City Hall, 911 North 7th Avenue
- Police Department, 911 North 7th Avenue
- Community Recreation Center, 144 Wilson Ave.
- Marshall Public Library, 113 S. Garfield Ave.
Community and partner locations:
- Pocatello Pet Lodge, 145 South 3rd Avenue
- Pocatello Pet Lodge Too, 143 South 2nd Avenue
- Shaver’s Pharmacy and Compounding Center, 235 South 4th Ave.
- Tractor Supply Co., 1800 Garrett Way
- Streamline Sports Physical Therapy, 335 E. Lewis St., Suite 10
- Off the Rails Brewing, 228 South Main Street
- PetSmart, 1880 Hurley Dr.
- Atlas Rehabilitation, 4133 N. Garton Ln.
- Alta Animal Hospital, 1601 Bannock Hwy
- Community Animal Hospital, 833 N. 12th Ave.
People who want to receive food from the drive can go to the Pocatello Animal Shelter at 3100 Avenue of the Chiefs and talk to the staff. There are no eligibility requirements to receive pet food.
“We like to believe and have good faith in people that the people who really need it are the ones who are coming,” Moore said.
Moore said the shelter has seen an increase in the number of people looking to surrender animals, and they’re now operating a waitlist.
“We’ve seen a pretty decent amount of surrenders increasing just over these past couple of months. We’re definitely kind of worried about that spiking even more as the cost of living does continue to go up,” Moore said.
Moore said that donating to the pet food drive helps counteract this, as a common reason for animal surrenders is financial difficulties in caring for them.
“When someone is coming on hard times and deciding if they need to feed themselves or their pet, or they need to pay the electric bill or feed their pet – we don’t want that to be a decision anyone has to make,” Moore said.