As winter in Columbia ramps up, Unchained Melodies will offer overnight housing for dogs whose owners are staying in local homeless shelters.
Currently, no overnight shelters allow dogs in Columbia. Unchained Melodies has partnered with COMO Mobile Aid Collective to shelters dogs with local vets and boarders, giving pets a warm place to sleep while their owners seek shelter out of the cold.
“A lot of people will suffer hypothermia because they don’t want to leave their pet,” Melody Whitworth, director of Unchained Melodies, said. “So this gives the pet a safe place to be out of the cold as well as allow their human owner to get into a shelter and stay safe.”
With recent overnight temperatures dropping into the teens in mid-Missouri, dogs should spend no more than 10 to 15 minutes outside before they are at risk of suffering from hypothermia, according to the American Veterinary Medicine Association.
“They suffer just as much as the humans do,” Whitworth said.
By housing pets with volunteer veterinarians and boarders, rescue shelters feel less of a burden.
“Rescues and shelters are in crisis mode right now,” Whitworth said. “Every rescue is full, every shelter is full. The demand for animals to come in is at an all time high.”
John Trapp, Executive Director of Room at the Inn in Columbia, said local homeless shelters have felt an increase in need as temperatures fell.
“We’ve been at capacity, and we actually had an overflow last night where we had to transport four people to another shelter,” Trapp said. “Historically, you always get more people when it gets colder.”
Residents can donate to Unchained Melodies to assist with boarding local pets and provide them with food and medical help.
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