‘Constant crisis mode’: Triangle animal shelters grapple with continued crowding
When the Animal Protection Society of Durham has outdoor play time, 2-year-old Echo jumps into the doggie pool with a splash.
“He’s our big friendly guy,” volunteer Karen Gibson said. “He will literally lick you in the face and just lay down in your lap. It’s just the sweetest, most heartwarming thing. ... I really do love him.”
With his personality and a fee waiver, Gibson and other volunteers can’t understand why Echo hasn’t been adopted yet.
“I just can’t think of a more ideal situation for any kind of family,” she said. “He really just checks off all the boxes.”
The APS of Durham has more dogs like Echo now than at any time this year: over 140 in-house and nearly 100 in foster care. There are so many dogs the shelter has had to double up in its 100 kennels.
Typically, each dog has a two-sided kennel where the dog eats, sleeps and plays on one side and goes to the bathroom in the other in between walks. When two dogs share a kennel, each animal has to eat, sleep and eliminate all on its side, stressing the dog and increasing the risk for disease.
Last week, the APS sent out an appeal for more people to foster and adopt, its first such plea in years.
“When shelters are full, animals die. It is a fact,” director Shafonda Allen said. “So, for us to get out and say we’re at full capacity, we know that people would worry about the animals. But we know that if we don’t put it out there, then people won’t know that we desperately need them to come adopt and foster.”
It’s a problem facing shelters across the Triangle.
Earlier this month, Orange County Animal Services also put out an appeal.
“We are concerned about the increased dog population at our shelter,” director Sandra Strong said in a news release. “We really need more dog adoptions in order to balance the population and keep the shelter from becoming overcrowded.”
The SPCA of Wake County, a privately run shelter in Raleigh, had to temporarily stop accepting kittens last week. Communications director Darci VanderSlik said they are experiencing a 109% increase in kitten intake this year, compared to the previous summer.
And at the public Wake County Animal Center, director Jennifer Federico said the shelter is almost in “constant crisis mode lately” with over 150 dogs and puppies and 300 cats and kittens. They’ve also had to start doubling up in dog kennels.
”We haven’t had to euthanize for space — thank God,” Federico said.
Why are shelters overwhelmed?
In most public shelters, more animals are being brought in and fewer are being adopted out. Pit bulls, bigger dogs and older dogs face the most difficulty finding homes. Dogs like Echo, a brown and white pit bull who has been at the Durham shelter for over 200 days.
“It’s so difficult,” Allen said. “You can have an animal come in and you’re like, oh, they’re going to go immediately. You have another one come in and you’re like, they’re going to be here forever. And it’s not because they’re bad dogs at all.”
At the Wake County Animal Center, pit bulls are only 30% of the dogs coming in but make up a majority of the dogs on the adoption floor at any one time.
“Little dogs, I don’t care if they have bad attitudes, bad hair, bad breath, bad everything — people are adopting them,” Federico said, walking past the kennels. “And then these [big dogs], even if they’re absolutely wonderful, will sit here and stay, because they look like that.”
Inflation and housing costs have forced some pet owners to choose between their rent or mortgage and their vet bills. Some people want to keep their animals, but move into apartments with expensive pet fees, 50 lbs. weight restrictions or no pit bull regulations.
“Those are all potential owners that are gone, that now can’t adopt,” Federico said. “I don’t know. I just feel like people think animals are disposable at the end of the day. They should be for life, but that’s not really what’s happening.”
And then there’s kitten season.
Feral, or cats in the wild are in their peak breeding months now, flooding shelters with pregnant cats and kittens that people find in their neighborhoods.
“Pets [are] falling from the sky,” VanderSlik said. “Every summer it’s like this. When the weather gets warmer, unaltered pets tend to roam more, and they will then have litters of puppies and kittens.”
If the problem gets to the point where the Wake shelter has no more space at all, Federico said they may have to euthanize healthy animals to make room for new ones. That hasn’t happened in several years.
“That’s a horrible situation to be in,” Federico said, “because there’s no reason for that pet to be euthanized other than we don’t have a spot for you.”
In a June 2023 report, the Best Friends Animal Society found 30,848 dogs and cats were euthanized in North Carolina shelters last year, making the state third in pet shelter deaths for the fifth year in a row.
While many shelters, especially in rural areas of the state, do euthanize unwanted animals, none in Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill has had to euthanize for space in several years and SPCA Wake is specifically a no-kill shelter.
“It’s a hard commitment to make, and it’s one we want to stay committed to,” said Allen, of the Durham shelter. “And that’s why we’re putting it out so much — we just need community help.”
Are there any solutions?
Shelters have long held specials like $25 or name-your-price adoption fees to reduce crowding. Now they’ve had to get more creative.
In Wake County, Federico said animal control recently started the “Return to Home Program’‘ to reduce the number of lost pets coming into the shelter. When officers find an animal, they will scan them for a identification microchip, drive the pet home if they have one and give them to the owner if they are there.
In Wake County and Durham, the public shelters partner with rescue groups, boarding facilities and limited-admissions centers like the SPCA to take animals when they are full. Allen said these partnerships helped the APS of Durham transfer 125 animals to other groups last month.
“One animal not coming in is a kennel for somebody else,” said Federico. “Adopters and fosters, they might be helping one, but they’re really helping two. The one they’re taking out of here and then the one they just made space for.
However, the shelter directors said a more permanent solution is going to take community efforts, including:
Advertising lost pets on community resources like Nextdoor
Adopting a pet from an animal shelter instead of a breeder
Checking feral cats for a missing ear tip, which means a shelter has already sterilized them and they should be left alone. (If not, call your shelter to see if they have a TNVR (Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Release) program).
If you can’t adopt, try fostering a pet or two, volunteering or donating to your shelter
And if you are looking to rehome your pet, consider all possible options before taking them to the shelter like social media or community adoptions
“We need compassionate people,” Allen said. “We can’t solve the animal situation without people,” Allen said.
This story was originally published June 30, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "‘Constant crisis mode’: Triangle animal shelters grapple with continued crowding."
