Marshfield Area Pet Shelter Hires First Full-Time Employee
There is a lot of tail-wagging and purring happening at Marshfield Area Pet Shelter (MAPS) this month, as the animal rescue organization celebrates the hiring of its first full-time employee.
What began as a grassroots effort to provide a more humane outlet for animals in the Marshfield area has grown into a full-fledged shelter in just five short years. Originally housing animals in foster homes and providing education, adoption, and microchipping to pet-owners at temporary locations throughout town, now MAPS manages a Microchip & Adoption Center at Marshfield Mall and a small shelter in the former airport terminal building on 29th Street.
With contracted responsibility for the City’s stray cats (and soon to add dogs), MAPS (a 501c3 non-profit and donation-dependent organization) realized it was time to hire someone to oversee the multitude of animals and volunteers associated with animal rescue work.
Fulfilling the new role of Shelter Manager is Kaitlin Loberg, a Certified Veterinary Technician who graduated from Madison Area Technical College in 2014. After graduation, Loberg worked at Wildwood Animal Hospital until accepting the job at MAPS.
“I became a technician to eventually work in shelter medicine, just wasn’t expecting it to happen so quickly!” said Loberg, who has volunteered with MAPS since moving to Marshfield two years ago. “I like working with animals because it’s very rewarding. They don’t have a voice, so they need people to protect them. That is why the job at MAPS interested me so much.”
“We are so proud to welcome Kaitlin as our first staff member and shelter manager,” said MAPS President Karen Rau. “She has been volunteering with us since September so she already has a great deal of knowledge from her volunteer experience.”
Loberg’s days begin at the airport building shelter, where she does rounds, checks on every pet, assesses sick animals, gives medication, and makes veterinary appointments if needed. She then performs intake exams on new animals, giving vaccines and deworming as scheduled.
Animals coming off of stray hold require blood test and microchips, and each Tuesday she prepares transport for necessary spay and neuter surgeries. Loberg is also responsible for assessing which cats are ready to transition to the Microchip & Adoption Center at the mall.
“They must be healthy, have their surgery done, be healed from that well, and socialized enough to interact with the public,” she explained. “If anyone is ready, I take them over mid-day.”
Afternoons are spent helping the new transfers get settled into their new environment, maximizing mall space while keeping the cats comfortable, monitoring cat relationships, and checking on their health, as well as updating all computer records.
Loberg still works part time on Tuesdays at Wildwood in an effort to keep her technician skills sharp.
“It’s definitely a busy and difficult job handling about 70 animals at a time (and all of the volunteers), but it’s something that I believe in and something that I know the animals of Marshfield desperately need so I’m just trying to do the best I can and do right by them,” she said.
Added Rau, “MAPS continues to strive toward making our community a better place for people, pets and innocent animals. One step at a time, through the generosity of our donors and volunteers, MAPS is fulfilling our mission to rescue and protect homeless animals through our lifesaving work.”
Though there is now a dedicated staff member for the organization, Rau says that volunteers remain just as important to MAPS’ success.
“MAPS has come this far because of our many hard working and dedicated volunteers,” she said. “We continue to rely on those volunteers to be successful because it takes a small army to care for the average 80 animals in our care every month.”
