'Drowning in good dogs.' Stark County shelters overwhelmed with animals

If you're thinking about adding a furry friend to your family, now would be a good time.

Both the Stark County Sheriff's Office's Dog Warden Division and Stark County Humane Society are out of space and urging folks to consider adoption to make room for more animals.

"When you adopt one (animal), you're actually helping two," said Jackie Godbey, executive director of the Stark County Humane Society. "You're taking one precious baby home with you, and you're opening that cage for another one that needs to come in and get that help."

Godbey said the Humane Society has about 100 dogs and 133 cats and kittens. The agency also has cats at the PetSmart stores in Belden Village Mall and Massillon.

"We have some cages that we can actually use like a double, and we're so full we've closed our portals," she said. "So instead of having one place to sleep and another place to eat and drink (the cages are being used as doubles)."

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Stark County dog warden has too many dogs

Meanwhile, the county Dog Warden Division has 52 dogs in its facility.

Stark County Dog Warden Jon Barber said the agency aims to have fewer than 40 dogs at any given time. There are 29 cages for adoptable dogs and 10 for dogs being held by the dog warden until their owners pick them up.

Right now, Barber said, most of these cages are filled with dogs available for adoption.

"We are drowning in good dogs," says a recent post from The Dogs at the Stark County Dog Warden Facebook page, which is run by volunteers at the facility. "40 dogs. No owner had come for them. These are only the available dogs. This doesn’t include the dogs who are on hold waiting for their owner. ... If you’re questioning bringing a new dog home. Now is the time. We beg you. Our shelter is maxed out. We have no room. We need adoptions."

Why are animal shelters overrun?

Animal shelters across the country are seeing more pets come through their doors and fewer people interested in adopting them. Godbey and Barber said a combination of factors, including housing insecurity, the return of in-person work and inflation, could be contributing to the problem.

Godbey said the Humane Society has seen more animals coming through its doors, particularly abandoned animals, since people started to resume normal activities after the pandemic. She said higher prices for items like dog food and the return of evictions have contributed to the increase.

"We always see an uptick of dogs coming into the facility around any holiday," Barber said. "I don't know why that is. Maybe it's somebody's watching another person's dog, and it gets away from them or maybe the people don't have anyone to watch their dog, so they turn them loose since they're going out of town."

Barber said most dogs that come into the facility aren't strays, but their owners aren't coming in to claim them.

"They're very healthy dogs," he said. "We'll get some that are on the skinny side or maybe have a skin condition or things like that, but for the most part, these are cared for animals. ... We really don't know what's going on right now or why this is happening."

The biggest problem, Barber said, is that fewer adoptive families are coming through the shelter, too.

"We try very hard not to be a facility to have to euthanatize for space," he said. "We want to keep these dogs for as long as we possibly can to give them every opportunity to find a home, but when you get to these numbers where your space is limited, (it's difficult)."

The Stark County Dog Warden Division is an open admissions facility, meaning if someone comes in with a stray dog, the agency has no option but to accept it.

"We can't turn them away," he said.

Where can I adopt a dog in Stark County?

The Stark County Humane Society, 5100 Peach St. NE, Nimishillen Township, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The Stark County Dog Warden, 1801 Mahoning Road NE, Canton, is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The agency encourages anyone interested in adopting to bring children and any other animals that live in their home along with them when visiting.

Available dogs can also be viewed on the county sheriff's website at http://webnet.starkcountyohio.gov/petsearch.

Barber encouraged dog owners to make sure their pets are microchipped as the agency uses them to reunite dogs with their owners.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that volunteers run The Dogs at the Stark County Dog Warden Facebook page.

Reach Paige at 330-580-8577, pmbennett@gannett.com, or on Twitter @paigembenn.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Animal shelters in Stark looking for people to adopt dogs