Animal Care & Control Appreciation Week - 2022

It’s Animal Care & Control Appreciation Week from April 10 - 16. Help us celebrate the hard-working personnel of Multnomah County Animal Services offering the highest quality of care for animals in the shelter, and Animal Services Officers in the community who give their all —often in dangerous circumstances — to provide equitable and essential services for the animals and people of Multnomah County.

Say thank you or send a message to share with Animal Care & Control personnel

As a community, we say thank you to our Animal Care staff for your caring and compassionate work behind the scenes in the animal shelter, providing an excellent level of care, and helping pets either get back to their homes, or find new homes. The work you do saves lives, and changes the lives of animals and their people for the better.

We thank our Animal Services Officers, who are first responders protecting the welfare of helpless animals and pets that are rescued from injury, disease, abuse, neglect, and natural disasters. We thank you for providing the essential community functions of enforcing our State and County Animal Control laws that protect and keep pets and people safe, and safeguarding against animal-borne diseases including rabies. We thank you for your humane practices including educating the public on the proper care of their beloved pets, and facilitating access to crucial resources including emergency pet food support and veterinary care.

We invite our community to join us in honoring these essential animal welfare workers this week.

Messages from the Community

Huge thanks and admiration for the tireless care you provide to the animals (and their humans!) across MultCo, making the hard decisions and doing the tough work day after day. I know it's not all fuzzy kittens and playful puppies and that you've seen really tough sad things in your work, but also know that every day you're truly helping animals. Thank you for all you do.

We adopted Bailey from MCAS in February of this year. From the staff that answer the phone, to those who are on the floor, all were awesome! It is obvious that all the people working and volunteering at MCAS are dedicated, professional and compassionate about helping the animals in their care. Thank you for all you do for the animals in need! (By the way, Bailey is doing great and just finished his level one puppy class!)

I was very impressed with the response from Animal Control when an injured stray dog appeared in our neighborhood. His care, concern, professionalism and communication skills were much appreciated! Whenever I donated towels (pre-Covid), the staff was genuinely grateful. Thanks to all the dedicated MCAS employees! Your difficult work is much appreciated!

In 2016, a cat named Reggie entered into Multnomah County Animal Services. He was a surrender who was attacked by a dog with bad injuries that were treated by Dove Lewis. Then he went to a foster home to recover. When he was better, he was put up for adoption on the MCAS website. I saw his handsome picture and I was smitten, I just knew he was going to be my cat. I adopted him on July 5, 2016 so we could have our birthdays together (mine is the 4th). He was a fantastic cat, the smartest I have ever had. Loved to play, loved catnip. He passed away in October of 2021 from renal failure (about age 15-16) and I miss him a lot. I would like to thank everyone from Dove Lewis and his foster who helped him recover, to the volunteers who fed him, cleaned his kennel and loved him, and the photographer who took his picture and set in motion a wonderful companionship I will never forget. Thank you MCAS!

I’m so happy to be back to fostering for MCAS. It’s wonderful to see the familiar faces of some of my favorite people in animal welfare. You guys are awesome!

I have volunteered at the shelter for a number of years and the level of professionalism has been outstanding. They are some of the reasons I keep going myself. It is not easy work, some days good some time difficult. All the people I have worked with in all the different areas,have made it, so I want to keep come back to help as much as I can, the people and the animals.

I just want you all to know how much I appreciate the services you preform. I volunteered there for 8 years and I know what you do and I'm grateful! May God richly bless all of you!

Just want to say what fantastic work you folks do. I've had the need to use MCAC more than once and have always been very impressed by the care and compassion that was given. A dog I lost at the SRD was found after being struck by a vehicle and was taken to your facility. He was given excellent care until we could get him to another vet. Second time was when you took in a stray cat that we thought was sick. He got loose in your intake room and was quite a handful to "corral." We picked him up a week later, neutered with all his shots, and he thrives to this day. Thank you so much for being there!

Thank you for all the hard work you do to protect animals and keep our communities safe and humane! You are modern-day heroes!

Thank you for all you do for animal companions and their guardians. Your resiliency throughout the pandemic is much appreciated. I am inspired by the work you are doing to better serve everyone in our community and to keep animal companions in their homes when possible. It takes compassion, creativity and persistence to respond to all the demands made on you - plus move forward to do more and do things differently. I want to especially appreciate the work that all of you do as the refuge of last resort for many animals that are hard to place, behaviorally challenged and medically needy. You are doing an awesome job in an area of critical service for all of us. Thank you!!