Western Australia's largest animal shelters are pleading for the public's support as they prepare for a potential crisis situation once the state's borders reopen.
With more than 230 cats onsite and another 600 in foster care, the Cat Haven in Shenton Park is already struggling to cope.
The shelter's Amber Ashford said she was desperate to move cats into homes before being hit with expected staff shortages once the hard border comes down on February 5.
"We really need to lower these numbers, or we physically will not have the resources to look after them once staff start having to isolate due to having COVID-19 or being a close contact," she said.
"It currently takes us the whole day with our normal staff to get every cat fed, cleaned, played with … so it's going to be a very big struggle if half our staff goes down."
Despite an influx of cats coming in, the number leaving the shelter each day at present is low.
"We're getting up to possibly 80 cats a day, which is huge considering we're only getting 20 adoptions a day," Ms Ashford said.
Future for animals unclear
With less than three weeks to go until WA's border opening, Ms Ashford said the Cat Haven was preparing for the inevitable.
"We're trying to think of everything we can do," Ms Ashford said.
"We have some restrictions in place and will be working in teams to minimise the risk of exposure to staff, but we are kind of worried about what's going to happen if half our team goes down.
Ms Ashford said she understood the state had to eventually reopen but was concerned about the immense pressure it would place on staff.
"We are anxious about what will happen to the cats in our care if we cannot provide for them. We are seeing this happen to so many shelters and rescues around the world and over east," she said.
"With our work being essential our staff cannot stop working and isolate for 7-14 days."
Ms Ashford said the shelter was already experiencing issues with supply shortages.
"We're having huge supply issues with [a certain brand of] cat food so we're finding we can't get much of that, which is really taking a toll on us," she said.
"Our shop shelves are also looking a little bit bare, which does take a hit on our retail store, so we're not going to be able to get as much money in if we don't have enough stock."
Dogs in the same boat
Next door, the Dogs' Refuge Home is also preparing for a big impact on their operations.
They are worried about staff shortages and the possibility of a surge in pet surrenders.
"During our previous lockdowns, we didn't see a huge drop in adoptions, but our problem was that later on, when people started to return to normal life, we saw a huge increase in surrenders," Robyn Slater from the Dogs' Refuge Home said.
"So if people are struggling financially or they're finding themselves homeless, then we see a lot of surrenders from people who simply can't house their dogs or aren't in a position to pay for more expensive procedures, and that always causes our vet bills to go up."
The refuge currently cares for around 100 dogs, with an average of four dogs coming in and four going out every day.
But Ms Slater expressed concerned that balance could be breached.
"At the moment adoptions have slipped a little bit … we have really good weeks and then we have slow weeks and we're just wondering if that's to do with the fact that some people are preparing themselves for what's to come," she said.
Planning new ways of working
Ms Slater said current restrictions had already forced the refuge to cancel events they relied on to self-fund their operations.
"If we have cases here or people are forced into lockdowns or self-isolation, that means we have less staff on the premises, less volunteers and less people coming through the door to adopt," she said.
"If the premises did need to close, we'd still need to have a core amount of staff and volunteers here to look after the dogs … so any staff shortages are really going to stretch us in terms of manpower and just making sure the dogs' basic needs are met."
Ms Slater said the organisation was already planning what operations post-February 5 would look like.
"We're going to be doing a lot of interviews outside and minimising face-to-face contact," she said.
"We've also set up a good online and phone interview system so we will be utilising that more if we do see cases increasing a lot.
"We're making sure that we have a lot of staff available, a lot of volunteers on board and trained to the standard that we need them to be able to jump in if we're facing shortages.
"Just because there's a pandemic, doesn't mean there aren't dogs that need to be saved."
Volunteers brace for 'long, sustained' disruptions
Other welfare organisations are also working to ensure service disruptions were minimised once community cases begin to rise.
Anglicare WA said it was expecting to move its COVID-19 procedures to high alert soon.
"The fourth stage is where there is a large-scale infection in the community, so everything switches to remote work, [there will be] very small number of services, very high level of PPE and doing everything we can to protect the clients and the staff in those services where we have to be present," Anglicare WA's chief executive Mark Glasson said.
He said staff had spent the past two years getting ready.
"We're as ready as we can be [but] I have concerns about our readiness in terms of the volume of what's about to hit us," he said.
"It's not like lockdown, when you have a short, sharp break … we're expecting a long, sustained period of disruptions and we expect that we'll lose probably up to 20 per cent of our staff to infection or to isolation."
Staff reduced as demand elevates
While the number of available staff may reduce after February 5, Anglicare WA expects demand for its services to increase.
Despite concerns of Omicron spreading through the community, Mr Glasson said he was confident the organisation would continue to provide critical services.
"Our residential services for homeless people are really important — women's refuges, youth accommodation facilities — wherever we have people who can't live independently," he said.
"Services that respond to violence in the community – domestic violence, outreach services, critical response services where we work with police and other departments – those services are critical and they need to continue on."
Mr Glasson said he had been watching and learning from the eastern states.
"We need to plan for food shortages, we need to plan for staff shortages, we need to ensure that we've got the PPE and rapid antigen tests in place so that we can deliver as many services as we can," he said.
"What we know about the virus is that the impact is particularly felt by the vulnerable people – the homeless, the poor, people who struggle with mental health or are experiencing domestic violence — and we're expecting that we'll see a lot more of that as the virus unravels in Western Australia."
As a result, Mr Glasson believed WA could benefit from pushing its reopening date back another month.
"It might be worth waiting for a little bit longer to ensure that the rapid antigen tests are in place, that we've got all the PPE that we need, to ensure that we're locking down so that those vulnerable people … their needs are met," he said.
"That's the community that pays the price … and we have an obligation to make sure they get the support they need."
