Following a wave of recent arrivals, St. Tammany Parish government's long overcrowded, no-kill animal shelter system is way over capacity for dogs and is now in “mayday” mode, the parish said.
In an announcement on Wednesday, the parish said the shelter is 70% over capacity for canines, with 215 as of Wednesday afternoon. That's nearly 100 more dogs than it was designed to hold. The shelter is now waiving adoption fees for dogs that have been in the shelter longer than six months.
In recent months, the Parish Council has taken steps to curb the parish's unsheltered animal population, passing an ordinance that requires all cats and dogs in the parish to be spayed or neutered and increasing funds for the program that helps people pay for the spay or neuter procedure.
But there was a recent wave of owners dropping off pets and abandoned animals being found in the community, the press release said. At the same time, adoptions have slowed and rescue pulls have stopped.
The parish posted a message on its Facebook page saying: “100 fur babies need a miracle!”
A rescue pull is when a private organization takes an animal from the parish shelter and assumes control of it, Animal Services Director Rob Bremer said. That has decreased recently because those organizations' shelters have been as full as the parish's, he said.
“We reserve the ‘mayday' call to our community only for these circumstances, and this should not be taken lightly,” said Bremer in a press release. He said the parish has worked hard to become a no-kill shelter, but its “can only do that with our partner's and community's help and support.”
The shelter is encouraging members of the community to consider adopting an animal, though it emphasized that a pet is a long-term commitment and comes with significant financial cost. All shelter animals come vaccinated, microchipped and spayed or neutered.
“We are at a critical point and must reduce the amount of animals in our system – as dog fights, disease spread, and other factors can affect the quality of life of the dogs in our wards. Our animals are our top priority and we will not keep them in inhumane conditions, but the numbers are against us,” Bremer said.
