Dog kennel space at Multnomah County’s Troutdale animal shelter is running critically low, officials warned Friday.
Animal Services Director Erin Grahek said an influx of strays and owners turning over their dogs has put the shelter in a bind. As kennels fill up, some dogs are being housed in staff offices, she said.
“I can tell you, it’s a lot,” Grahek said at a press conference Friday. “We just are not able at this point to keep up with the intake, so we need folks’ help to come on out and adopt pets this weekend.”
The county has lowered dog adoption fees to $25 for the rest of the month. Grahek encouraged people to visit the shelter over the weekend and adopt a dog to help alleviate the strain on capacity.
The facility is the only public shelter that accepts all animals in the county. Spokesperson Alicia Mendez said the shelter will continue to accept dogs that are surrendered or brought in as strays for the time being, but she acknowledged that it will be difficult to find space for new pets unless conditions change.
Officials are asking anyone who finds a stray or lost dog to consider temporarily taking it in, if it is safe to do so. Many lost pets are found close to home, and officials are asking that people try to find the pet’s owner before taking the pet to the county facility.
Grahek said this is the largest surge in dog arrivals at the shelter since 2012. The county took in 268 dogs last month alone and adopted out 234, officials said. The shelter partners with foster volunteers and other animal organizations to keep capacity down, but Grahek said nearly all of the facility’s 85 kennels are currently full.
Grahek asked anyone who may be turning in their pet due to financial hardship or another emergency to call the shelter in advance to discuss other options.
“When our kennel capacity is tight, we struggle to figure out how to take in that lost or stray animal,” Grahek said. “We struggle to figure out how to respond to pets that may create a public safety issue.”
The county’s beleaguered animal shelter is currently working through more than 100 recommendations for improvement stemming from a nine-month review of the division that came after volunteers and staff raised concerns about conditions at the shelter. Audits in 2016 and 2018 found that the division wasn’t meeting national standards for feeding animals and cleaning kennels most of the time. The shelter has made improvements since then, but still has work to do to meet the needs of animals and staff, auditors found last month.
The last time the shelter was at capacity was in 2023, when a spike in pet intake and staffing shortages made it difficult for it to provide basic care to its animals. Officials have long argued that the facility is too small, and the county is currently hashing out details for a possible shelter rebuild with an estimated price tag of up to $85 million.
— Austin De Dios covers Multnomah County politics, programs and more. Reach him at 503-319-9744, adedios@oregonian.com or @AustinDeDios.
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