With dogged determination, PARL is keeping animals safe during pandemic

Rebecca Baylies was thrilled to join the Providence Animal Rescue League team as its executive director on March 1, 2020. But she was immediately met with immense challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions.

Throughout the last year, Baylies said, major changes in the operations and programming of the shelter, 34 Elbow St., were implemented to ensure the safety of both the animals and the community.

PARL, which has been providing rescue and relief to dogs, cats and small animals since 1913, shifted from a walk-in location to appointment-only for surrenders and adoptions, and emphasized the shelter’s social media and website (www.parl.org) as the primary place to view adoptable animals. (Integrated with pet-adoption software, the listings automatically update if an animal has a pending adoption or is taken home.)

With so many people isolating at home, many people moved ahead with long-delayed plans to adopt a pet. Others, suffering from depression and loneliness, brought home a rescue for company and a sense of purpose.

The high demand, coupled with the virus, ratcheted up the stress on PARL’s employees.

“We are a smaller facility here, we have 21 people on staff,” Baylies said. “When this started, and throughout most of last year, my main concern as a director was setting up the animals and staff for a situation where if someone got sick, and we had a full house of animals … we needed to make sure someone is always able to take care of the animals, so we actually had to limit our intake for several months.

“That was hard because we had so many people ready to adopt, but we couldn’t responsibly keep up with the demand.”

In 2020, the shelter placed 500 animals in homes, about half of its usual number for a calendar year.

Another big change for PARL during the pandemic was the expansion and use of foster homes as a primary housing space for the animals, Baylies said.

“Foster placement became huge. If an animal came in and was able to spend most of their time in foster care prior to adoption, that eliminated that concern of having a full house and no staff to take care of them.”

PARL saw its registered foster families grow from around 20 to around 80 in the last year. In March, 66 animals were fostered over the course of the month. Animals are still housed in the shelter, but capacity has been limited.

The shelter’s food pantry also saw exponential growth during the pandemic. PARL Pet Food Pantry provides owners who are experiencing financial hardships with pet food, cat litter and other necessary supplies.

The pantry is stocked solely through donations. During the pandemic, people who were in need of such services increased, but so did donations of supplies. Baylies, who lives in Providence, hopes that these donations continue past the pandemic.

“We’re really able to identify it as a clear goal for the future, we’re talking about new storage places for food now,” she said.

In March 2020, PARL distributed around 2,000 meals a month. In the first four months of 2021, they’ve distributed 45,000 meals.

“There’s a real tangible demand,” Baylies noted.

As more vaccinations guide Rhode Island to a new normal, PARL plans on continuing the expansion of its pantry through drive-through and mobile events, in addition to slowly reopening the shelter.

“The need for support has definitely been heightened due to the pandemic, but it’s also existed for a long time, and so being able to fine-tune and continue these programs is important to us,” Baylies said.

As the programs expand, Baylies hopes to be able to return to PARL’s usual adoption rate of around 1,000 pets per year.

“The goal is to be able to resume those previous numbers, but also continue to help more through foster programs,” she said.

To learn more about PARL’s adoptable animals, visit www.parl.org/adoptable-animals-providence. To learn about more PARL’s Pet Food Pantry, visit www.parl.org/pet-food-pantry.

To keep up with PARL’s adoptions and programming, follow their social media: instagram.com/parlri, facebook.com/providenceanimalrescueleague.

HANNAH ALTMAN (haltman@jewishallianceri.org) is the content producer for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and writes for Jewish Rhode Island.