BURIEN, Wash. — Anyone with a pet knows that the costs of food and medical care have gone way up.
Those expenses are so high that several pets with medical issues are now landing at local shelters. Burien C.A.R.E.S. has about 50 dogs in a shelter right now, waiting for someone to adopt them. And they just recently rescued 18 dogs at once from a hoarder’s home.
“I mean, they were found in an environment that was extreme hoarding, filth, debris. It was horrible. They just survived off of a bag of food thrown in the middle of the room,” Debra George, executive Director of Burien C.A.R.E.S., told KOMO News.
Those dogs were fighting for food and did not have or know what humans were.
“So, for every animal that comes in here, it costs us minimally $300 to $500 just to get it vaccinated, rabies, and altered,” George said. That’s without any extra medical issues. So those 18 dogs cost the shelter close to $10,000.
“I like to call us like a mom-and-pop shelter. We also don’t receive the funding that larger shelters like Seattle Humane receives,” Jenn Lacaillade told KOMO News. She works the front desk, handling intake, adoptions, and so much more, including her favorite part, naming the dogs.
When 18 dogs came in at once, she decided to give each one the name of a cookie.
“So, we had molasses, cannoli, pinwheel, peanut butter, ginger snap, Milano, and I like to do it also because then we call them our cookie babies, right, so it’s sort of just how we lovingly refer to them within the shelter and even will reminisce later like you remember that one cookie baby?” she explained.
KOMO News asked George if they could have lightened the burden by asking other local shelters to each take a few of them.
“Yeah, we would transfer. But right now, pretty much everything’s at capacity.
Even when we reached out, I think, to Seattle Humane on these, they were like, we’re at capacity,” said George. So far, they’ve found homes for 17 of the cookie babies. Only Cannoli is still available for adoption. On top of the expenses associated with taking in 18 dogs at once, someone broke into the shelter on Nov. 19, taking money from a cash register that’s used to care for the animals.
“And so not only was it, you know, replacing the actual cash, but then we had to get our locks changed that day another $400 like that’s all coming out of money that’s here for the care of the animals,” Lacaillade explained.
Burien police have surveillance of the break-in and are investigating.. Burien C.A.R.E.S. remains committed to caring for animals at any cost since it is a no-kill shelter. George told KOMO that funding for the shelter breaks down into thirds.
One-third comes from the cities it contracts with, Burien and Des Moines. One-third comes from adoption fees, and one-third comes from donations, which is the money that covers all the vet bills they have.
“So, we say if you can give, give whatever you can. If you can become a monthly sustainer, that’s great for any nonprofit. It’s a great way to have a tax write-off at the end of the year without it being so painful during the year. So any donation helps,” George said.
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