Humane Society of Pikes Peak unveils new translation and interpretation services

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Humane Society of Pikes Peak unveiled an interpretation service for nearly 300 languages. This is part of an effort to break language barriers to increase animal adoptions. 

The HSPPR helps around 24,000 animals every year. Now, they hope to help even more furry friends with a new language interpretation service. 

Every day, the HSPPR gets up to 400 calls. Those callers are typically reporting a dangerous, lost, or injured animal. But until now, not every caller was able to get the help they needed. 

"We weren't servicing our entire community, we were only able to service the people that we could communicate effectively with, " said Kelly Napierlaski, Animal Law Enforcement Manager for the Humane Society of Pikes Peak.

People can now call the Humane Society and ask for an interpreter in their native language. When the line is transferred, they will be allowed to pick a language out of the more than 280 options. 

"We want to make sure we service our entire community not just those who are proficient in English, " added Napierlaski.

The Humane Society is hopeful it will help animals get the critical medical care they need faster too. 

"Our animal law enforcement agents are able to use it out in the field," said Napierlaski.  "So if you have a concern about an animal or your animal is actively in distress you are able to contact us and get guidance." 

All people have to do is call the interpretation line or go online, pick a language, and begin talking with an individual in their chosen language. 

"It also includes ASL so they can video chat in as well or if there is any sort of hard of hearing even in another language we can video chat let's say with the Spanish interpreter, " said Napierlaski.  

The Humane Society hopes this service motivates the community to go and adopt without worrying about linguistic challenges. 

The numbers to call for the extra resource are:

• (719) 445-3290 for the Animal Law Enforcement Call Center
• (719) 247-3785 for the Animal Law Enforcement Dispatch Center
• or (719) 888-4093 for the Animal Law Enforcement Officers