WALKER COUNTY, Ga. — The Walker County Animal Shelter has been facing extreme overcrowding the past few months.
The shelter has 48 proper kennels, but just over 100 dogs in its care.
We’ve all been working around the clock to try to get these animals out in other ways that doesn’t, you know, burden the community, but we’re we’ve kind of, we’ve stretched all of our options, said Melissa Smith, shelter director
Due to being completely out of space, the shelter has had to implement euthanasia deadlines for the second time in three weeks.
We are an open intake animal control facility. Essentially. What that means is that we cannot turn away any animals. So often we see people on Facebook being like, why just stop taking them in. Just stop taking them in. And unfortunately, that’s not an option for us, said Micayla Gray, animal care lead.
Thankfully, all the dogs on the list were adopted before the euthanasia deadline.
However, the shelter says unless they adopt out close to 50 animals, they will be right back in the same position next week.
We’re super grateful for the community coming and helping, because not only are they saving the animals, they’re really saving us a lot of heartbreak. But the cycle does continue, and we continue to need that support every day, said Smith.
In the month of May, the shelter took in 177 animals, but only 102 were adopted out.
The shelter is normally closed on weekends, but this Saturday, June 7th, the shelter will be open and waving adoption fees.
Our goal is to get 40 to 50 dogs out into homes just to be able to continue to take in those dogs that need us and humanely care for them, and to prevent from having to do another euthanasia list on Monday, because that is already kind of in the works, said Smith.
The Walker County Animal Shelter is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. this week.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, you can fill out the form here.
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