House pets and farm animals take refuge from flood at county shelter

The Horry County Animal Care Center has been turned into a hotel for pets whose owners are forced to flee from the path of the overflowing Waccamaw River.

Animal control officials are on the scene of evacuations to take pets into temporary shelter right away, sparing their owners from more worry and hassle as they scurry to save what personal belongings they can before homes are flooded.

Not only is it a service that’s of welcome relief to pet owners, but officials say it will cut down on the number of animals that will have to be rescued later.

“Picking up the animals is not as risky as doing water rescues,” said Kelly Bonome, operations manager for the Horry County Animal Care Center.

Volunteers from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) are also helping officials rescue animals from the fast-rising flood waters.

So far, the animal shelter is housing 70 dogs and cats, along with some chickens, Guinea pigs, regular pigs and four horses, most of which had to be rescued.

New teams are coming in next week to relieve workers, and Bonome said if the care center reaches capacity, they will transfer the overflow to another shelter.

“It’s a little worse than last year,” Bonome said, referring to last year’s historic flood.

Shelter employees were ready for Hurricane Matthew, and with the help of the HSUS evacuated most of the animals already there that are up for adoption, to make way for the pets and other animals taken in during the storm.

Pet owners who must evacuate their homes because of the flooding caused by Hurricane Matthew and are forced to leave pets behind can also drop off the animals at the shelter.

For those impacted by this storm, there is no boarding charge.

Animal shelter supporters can help out by donating small bags or cans of dog and cat food, as well as horse feed and all stock feed for farm animals.

This story was originally published October 14, 2016 at 7:56 PM with the headline "House pets and farm animals take refuge from flood at county shelter."