Animal Shelter nearing capacity concerned they will have to restart putting pets down

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN Town News) — It is a story you have most likely heard quite a few instances, animal shelters are overrun with animals and just can’t hold up.

But the dilemma is obtaining so out of hand, shelters are acquiring to make some challenging selections. Employees at the Rowan County Animal Shelter say if persons continue dropping off pets at this amount, they are concerned they’ll have to conclusion their many years-lengthy streak of no needless euthanasia.

When hunting through adoptable pets at the Rowan shelter, you will detect an exciting piece of info. The shelter lists a “Last Working day Obtainable for Adoption” date with every single pet.

“We used to not be rather as transparent about it, but we discovered that transparency appears to be to genuinely be quite critical,” said Shelter Supervisor Maria Pannell.

That date tells animal fans that the shelter can only hold pets for a particular length of time. If the shelter is whole when that day hits, they’ll have to make some tough decisions.

“We do grant extensions if we have space, so it is not automatically a concrete point. But it does sort of allow individuals know the odds that we’re working with,” mentioned Pannell.

Pannell claims the shelter hasn’t experienced to unnecessarily euthanize a pet in over five several years, or a cat in in excess of three yrs. She attributes that achievements to dollars from county commission that will allow the shelter to maintain extra ‘80% off’ adoption activities. Prior to the more funding from the county, she suggests the shelter’s euthanasia rate was at the very least 70 p.c.

With additional surrenders all through puppy and kitten season, the shelter is presently practically at capacity.

“We really do not have to arrive to this. I was form of hoping that we had gotten previous all the euthanasia, specially when they’re nutritious like this and they are minimal and they have earned a probability,” explained shelter visitor Traci Sharp.

A new creating at the shelter is presently underneath development. But they say the goal of the area isn’t to make a lot more space for animals, just to strengthen the high quality of the housing. Thus, the answer lies fully with the community.

The shelter states surrendering animals to them need to usually be a previous vacation resort. They propose turning to social media or rescue groups to start with. They also strongly encourage spay and neuter as an selection to cut down the number of litters they get.