Wrapping up 2023, local shelters are in crisis
SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY – Animals and staff all over the region are having a tough time, and there seems to be no end in the immediate future.
News 40 spoke to Lorri Hare, director of the Bowling Green Warren County Humane Society, about how the year has wrapped up for them, and it’s not too good. The station reached out to other shelters in the area for interviews, but unironically, no one was available due to the nature of their line of work at this point in time, somewhat reaffirming the dire times that the local shelters find themselves in.
Hare said they’ve taken in 11,600 animals as of Dec. 28, and it’s just too much for them to handle. With Bowling Green being the more metropolitan area, many smaller shelters look to them for help, but Hare said to her dismay, she’s not able to take any animals off anyone’s hands.
Hare said in just the first two days of being open this week, they’ve taken in 62 animals and right before her interview, a man walked in with seven more that he wanted to surrender to the shelter.
According to her, rescue organizations that they partner with in more northern areas of the state are facing the same issues, whereas they used to take 50 or so a month, they’re only taking 10 at most the past five months.
Hare said she’s heard of many directors contemplating where their career might end as they are mentally and physically exhausted by the number of animals they and the rest of the staff have had to deal with this year. Hare said in her 25 years of working in shelters, she’s never seen it this bad and she hates to see her staff leave so drained every day.
The only answer according to her and other shelters is to spay and neuter your animals. Hare said it hurts her to see on social media some people pointing the finger at shelters for “not working hard enough” but she explained to the station that it’s a community issue, by allowing a pet, especially an outside pet to roam unaltered, unwanted litters are bound to occur. According to Hare one pregnant cat in a seven-year pyramid can be the ancestor of 650,000 cats, and a dog cat be the ancestor of around 45,000 dogs in five years.
Hare said to avoid hard decisions for many shelters, the only option to is to try and cap off the population growth as much as possible, many shelters are practically begging the public to fix their animas by offer such low fees for spaying and neutering.
The director told News 40 that this is a problem all over the country and the northeast, a popular area for shelters to transport pets to, seems to be running out of room as well.
