LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The Animal Foundation said Wednesday it has taken 989 animals since the beginning of the month. They say the situation has become critical.
The hallways of the shelter are lined with cages covered with blankets to calm the dogs inside. They are making it work, adding emergency pop-up housing anywhere they can find room as their kennel space is taken.
Thursday morning, the shelter revealed that they had received 38 dogs from one home, including one nursing mother and her four puppies, along with four other pregnant dogs.
“It is really tough. We are the public shelter so any stray animal, cruelty case, neglect cases like we had a story this week about some puppies that were left in a bucket by the side of the road, they all come in,” explained Hilarie Grey, CEO of the Animal Foundation.
As a public shelter, the Animal Foundation must take in animals picked up by animal control or seized by law enforcement. If an owner dies or is arrested, they often end up at the shelter waiting for a new home.
“We need to, in summer especially when it gets really, really busy, reserve the space in the shelter as much as possible for the ones that need us most,” Grey contended.
In the extreme heat, it is also critical to get pets off the streets quickly. This time of year, there is also usually a big push to clear the shelters ahead of the Fourth of July. Fireworks lead to a lot of dogs getting scared and getting out and ending up in the shelter and ahead of the big holiday, the Animal Foundation is already critically overcrowded.
“We need adopters, fosters, and rescue transfers to help us manage our population and ensure the well-being of our animals and staff,” Grey requested.
If you find a stray dog in your neighborhood, the Animal Foundation says see if you can find the owner. Out of 10,000 stray pets brought to the shelter last year, only 36 percent got back home.
“They are much less likely to get reunited with their owner if they come to the shelter because they don’t have a microchip, they have out-of-date info, maybe their owner doesn’t know to look on our lost and found website and they don’t know what to do,” Grey reported.
They are asking anyone who can help to come to the shelter on Friday for a special foster event from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will provide everything you need to foster an animal for free.
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