LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Monday night, the largest animal shelter in Nevada held a special event adoption event though the shelter is normally closed on Mondays.
It’s trying to find adopters and make room for animals as their capacity crisis continues.
What else can be done about it? FOX5’s Kim Passoth went one-on-one with Animal Foundation CEO Hilarie Grey looking for answers.
The Animal Foundation was founded back in the 1970s as a low-cost spay and neuter clinic. It is now one of the one of the largest single-site animal shelters in America.
On average there are between 800-900 animals at the Animal Foundation on any given day. It’s capacity constantly pushed to the limits. Unfortunately, that does mean animals have to be put down. What can be done to address constant overcrowding and the euthanization of animals?
“At the Animal Foundation, we take everybody. We’re really like the public hospital. We’re the safety net for animals that are without a home, that have been abandoned, that have been abused, that have been hurt,” explained Grey.
“You call the Animal Foundation ‘the safety net’. Is that safety net big enough to take everything that comes your way?,’” Passoth questioned.
“There is a finite capacity, both physically and then in our capacity for care… but when you look at some of the factors that contribute to people having issues with their pets, there are some things that can be done in places to mitigate that.
There was a lot of legislation this last session that would have incentivized landlords to be a little bit more pet friendly here in the Las Vegas Valley. There’s not a lot of regulation over whether a landlord for an apartment complex can double up on pet rent and pet deposits, or say, you know, only dogs of a certain size can be here or discriminate based on breed. Those kinds of things can be addressed to help people be able to keep their pets,” Grey replied.
From Moapa to Laughlin, throughout Clark County and all of the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, by contract, the Animal Foundation must take in animals from local jurisdictions.
“We’re a public shelter so we can’t control our incoming population… we’ve been reaching that capacity and over most days for all of 2025… we will do everything that we can to avoid euthanizing for space,” Grey shared.
What can be done? “If you had a magic wand, and could solve this capacity crisis now and into the future, what would it be?,” Passoth asked.
“Having less than 23% of animals that come in have microchips is really awful. It’s not acceptable… if we could reduce the number of strays that have homes coming into the shelter, we would never be overcrowded.” Grey contended.
Grey stated they get about 100 to 150 intakes a day and the majority of animals that come in are lost pets. She hopes new local mandatory microchipping laws will help get them home without a shelter visit.
What about the animals that can’t be sent home? Could more kennel space be added at the Animal Foundation, possibly even a second shelter location? Grey said there is not space to add on, but they would support a second shelter.
“That’s really a question for the jurisdictions but we would support that if that is the direction they would like to go,” Grey answered.
The idea was recently brought up during a Clark County commission Meeting on the Animal Foundation contract by Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick.
“I don’t think that people know that we have invested $5 million in design of building a secondary shelter,” Kirkpatrick reported.
FOX5 is seeking to learn more about this. Over the past two weeks, we reached out to Clark County multiple times and asked for an interview with the commissioner.
We have also filed an open records request. So far, we have not yet heard back.
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