Dekalb County, GA – Two days ago, the CEO of the LifeLine Animal Project shared devastating news regarding animal shelters in Dekalb and Fulton counties. CEO Rebecca Guinn explained that the “county shelters have reached a pivotal breaking point.”
Guinn explains that families experiencing hardships are relinquishing ownership of their pets and it has resulted in shelters being stretched to “unsustainable limits.”
Laying out the cold, hard facts of what this means for DeKalb County Animal Services:
DeKalb County Animal Services must reduce and sustain its shelter population to 450 dogs or less in the next 60 days. Today, 615 dogs are in the shelter. With the current rate of intake, this means that an average of 21 dogs must leave the shelter each day, whether through adoptions, foster, rescue transfers, or euthanasia.
And Fulton County:
We have similar challenges in Fulton County, where we currently have 375 dogs, many living 6 dogs to a kennel. We have humane capacity to care for 300. There are also 105 dogs in the overflow shelter in Midtown. Each day, two more animals arrive than leave our Fulton County shelter.
Shelter staff does not want to euthanize animals for space, but it is happening because the conditions are not humane. The agencies desperately need adopters, and foster homes.
Please visit a LifeLine shelter to adopt or foster ASAP to save a life. Learn more and see available pets at LifeLineAnimal.org.
Please add your voice to the conversation by leaving a comment below. What do you think needs to happen in situations like this? Nobody wants to see healthy animals put down, but what should shelters do when there are more pets than homes?
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In Michigan a lot of the shelters & Humane societies are telling people that they are not taking anymore animals in due to space. Some shelters & Humane societies put people on a waiting list & will call them when they have room.
It is despairing, infinitely sad and absolutely horrible that animals are killed that only want to live!!!!!
I don’t know either, but there MUST PLEASE be another solution!!!!!!
IT IS ABSOLUTELY UNBEARABLE!!!!!!!