PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Multnomah County Animal Services on Thursday sent out what they called an “urgent code red plea” for help with fostering and adopting dogs.
“Over the last week or so we have noticed that our capacity is getting pretty tight as of this afternoon. I think we had 12 open dog kennels,” said Erin Grahek, the director of Multnomah County Animal Services.
She says their capacity to take in dogs is so tight that they have to be “intentional.”
“Like we may ask neighbors who find a stray, we might ask them, ‘Could you hold on to that stray for a day or two?’” said Grahek.
Grahek says their issue with capacity is at least in part due to the start of summer, and she says it’s a problem not unique to Multnomah County Animal Services.
“Honestly, people are outside more and so their pets are off and outside with them, or people could be working in their yards, or the garage doors open,” said Grahek.
To better understand what the dogs are going through, we spoke to a dog behaviorist, Olive Tumbarello.
“High stress, you know, when we think of dogs versus cats, we think dogs are more adaptable, but that’s not true. They’re just as stressed as cats are,” said Tumbarello.
“If folks are interested, if they’ve ever thought about serving their community by being a foster family for a dog or a cat, would be a really great time,” said Grahek.
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