Butte Humane Society offered relief to those with pets who were evacuated from their homes during the Oroville dam emergency evacuation.

During the crisis, all but three kennels were cleared out in less than 10 hours. “This would not have been possible without the help of the community,” said Chelsea Beights, Butte Humane Society communications and development director.

When the dam crisis occurred, the humane society sent out a call for donations, fosters and volunteers. Numerous donations from current, former and new volunteers, as well as community activists, were received.

“We had a lot of donations,” Beights said. “All day on Monday and Tuesday we had people calling in and saying ‘I went and got food, can I come in and donate it?’ and ‘I went and got a bunch of leashes, can I come in and donate (them)?’ Items like that are valuable to us because we are 100 percent donation funded, so we don’t usually have the cash resources to just go out and buy all that stuff.”

Donations received will be used for many dogs and cats to come. Once an animal is done using an item, it can be passed on to another. “Once those animals are adopted, the life of those products (is) continued because we re-sterilize and reuse (them),” she said.

In addition to donations, many foster families stepped up to the call and helped house animals that were at the humane society during the time of the crisis.

“They, the community, did a lot. There were quite a few people who took big dogs home. Obviously having a big dog in your home, if you’re not used to it, is a big challenge,” Beights said.

Many new fosters, as well as current fosters, came to take animals home for the duration of the dam crisis. “We had a lot of new fosters and current fosters come together and take dogs home for the duration of three days to a week, or over a week. They really stepped up,” she said.

Butte Humane Society was able to assist more animals that were displaced by the crisis because of the help received from the community. Following the Oroville dam emergency, the animal shelter in Willows flooded. It was under 2 to 3 feet of water when the humane society took some of their animals to shelter.

“We closed our cat adoption center down early. Our adoption manager and someone from our clinic went down and actually accepted–what I believe was about 16 cats–and brought them back here so we could kind of help them leave,” Beights said.

Typically the humane society doesn’t take animals from other shelters outside of Chico, Beights said, but they wanted to be able to provide help and resources as needed.

“If we’re able to help Willows out when they’re in need or under (a) foot of water, that’s what we want to do,” she said. “It’s scary.”

Victoria Rohrer can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.