Gaston County says animal shelter full: "We're drowning"

Maxine, a boxer mix, was found wandering on East Chestnut Street in Gastonia in October. Thought to be around 7 years old, she has been sitting in a kennel at Gaston County's animal shelter since.

"She's a senior lady. She walks well on a leash," said Adoption Coordinator Elizabeth Henderson. "She is like the sweetest lady in here, and she's still sitting here."

Maxine is just one of the dozens of dogs currently housed at Gaston County Animal Care and Enforcement. The shelter only has 60 dog kennels, but on Thursday morning, there were 88 dogs housed there.

"We've been struggling for months," Henderson said. "We get four or five empty kennels. The next day we come in, there's one empty kennel. We're drowning, literally."

There were also 56 cats at the shelter on Thursday, many of them kittens, but the situation is not as dire for the cats, as they still have room for them.

The dogs, however, are a different story. They're running out of space, and they are in dire need of people willing to adopt or foster animals, as well as animal rescues who can take them in. Generally, adoption numbers have been low. In the last seven days, the shelter has taken in 50 animals. Seventeen were adopted, 16 went to rescues, and just six were returned to owners.

"Where are these owners? That's sad," Henderson said.

"I think this year has been one of the worst years that I think we've seen in a while," Henderson said.

To try to find more animals homes, the shelter has reduced their adoption fees − it is just $10 to adopt a cat right now, and $30 to adopt a dog. The fees will stay at those rates until the end of December.

After an animal has been in the shelter for 30 days, shelter staff start pushing hard to try to get them to an animal rescue. Dogs in particular deteriorate after more than a month in kennels, which are little more than small, concrete spaces with barred doors.

Two huskies, both who had been in their kennel since October, were pulled by Passion 4 Paws, a Vermont animal rescue, on Thursday. Doug and Luna were found Oct. 18 at Brookside Elementary School. Because they had microchips, shelter staff found their owner, but the owner did not come for them.

"We even offered to take the dogs to them," Henderson said.

Gaston County Animal Care and Enforcement is not a no-kill shelter. They do euthanize some animals, but they have worked hard to keep their euthanasia rates low, Henderson said.

Shelter staff go home in the evening thinking about the animals they want to save: Will a rescue take them? Will someone show up and open their home to them?

"We do everything in our power to save every animal in this building," Henderson said. "We go home at night thinking, 'What can we do to save this animal? Where can we make space?'"

"The hard, cold reality is, these animals are deteriorating the longer they sit here," she added. "But when you take in 50 animals in one week, the majority of them are strays and only six of them get claimed by an owner, we can only keep up so much. It's sad, and you can only save so many."

Some animals stay at the shelter for two months or more.

"We're keeping them for long periods of time. We're trying, but we need the public's help," Henderson said.

She said people who own pets should microchip them, and if someone loses a dog, they should go to the shelter in person to try to find it rather than simply trying to cal.

"If you lose your dog, please let us be the first place you look for your dog," she said. "We have thousands of people who contact us. If you lose your animal, come up here."

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gaston County says animal shelter full: "We're drowning"