St. Joseph Animal Shelter still full

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — After heading into St. Patrick’s Day weekend at capacity and with adoption specials, the St. Joseph Animal Shelter remains overcrowded.

Members of the Friends of the Animal Shelter of St. Joseph posted late last week and again during the weekend about the urgent need for adoptions and foster homes for dogs.

The weekend brought few adoptions, however, the shelter was able to resort to other resources to avoid having to euthanize dogs.

“We did also have some dogs go into foster,” said Aubrey Silvery, senior animal care specialist for dogs at the St. Joseph Animal Shelter. “We had some organizations that we partner with that pulled some animals. We were able to transfer some dogs out to some other places outside of our city, so that was a huge help.”

Although some animals were able to make it out of the shelter, Silvey said the kennel space won’t stay open for long.

“We have a decent amount of space right now, so we don’t get too excited when that happens anymore because we know we gotta keep, you know, moving along and getting these pets out as quickly as possible,” she said. “Because we have days where we take in 10 to 15 dogs.”

Silvey said a majority of the dogs coming into the shelter have been owner surrenders or stray dogs.

“Over the past two years, obviously the economy is rough,” Silvey said. “And so we have seen a pretty big increase in people who are unfortunately moving. Maybe they’re going to affordable housing, a lot of times that means, ‘I can’t take my pit bull’, ‘I can’t take my over-50-pound dog with me.’ I don’t think that’s for lack of love for their pet, but more of a situation where ‘We can’t afford the pet.’”

Silvey said the shelter is also seeing an increase in puppies.

Silvey said community members can help by volunteering, becoming foster parents, giving donations or even sharing Facebook posts to get the word out about animals up for adoption.