Macon County Animal Services limiting services until November 2nd, 2020

Due to COVID-19 cases within Macon County Animal Services and in preparation to continue essential service delivery at Macon County Public Health, Macon County Animal Services (a section within Macon County Public Health) will be limiting services until at least November 2nd, 2020.

Macon County Animal Services will continue to provide essential services including conducting bite
investigations and caring for and treating animals in their care. Macon County Animal Service’s lobby will be closed to the public. Animal surrenders, adoptions, picking up stray animals, and responding to nuisance calls will be discontinued until November 2nd, 2020. Those who are looking to adopt or re-home animals are encouraged to reach out to Appalachian Animal Rescue Center should they need these services. These measures are to ensure the safety of our staff, shelter volunteers, and the community.

The entire state of North Carolina is under a “Safer at Home” executive order, currently under phase 3 with masks required to be worn when social distancing cannot be maintained. Older adults and people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions might be at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19; however, anyone of any age can become infected with this illness. Therefore, we ask that community members strictly follow the governor’s orders and continue to practice social distancing, as well as safe hygiene measures such as hand washing and frequently cleaning touched objects and surfaces. The public can monitor the different phases of re-opening and learn more about the restrictions at https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/guidance.

MCPH regularly updates our Facebook page with accurate and current information regarding COVID-19; we encourage the public to check our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/MaconPublicHealth for up-to-date information.

Symptoms for COVID-19 are fever, cough, other lower respiratory illness (shortness of breath). If you believe that you may have COVID-19, please call the Health Department at 828-349-2517. The call center is open Monday through Friday from 8:30am – 4:00pm, closing daily for lunch from 12:00pm-1:00pm, until further notice.

It is important to make sure the information you are getting about COVID-19 is coming directly from reliable sources. For more information, please visit the CDC’s website at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus and NCDHHS’ website at www.ncdhhs.gov/coronavirus, which also includes future positive COVID-19 test results in North Carolina.