Time running out for dogs, cats in crowded shelters | Local News

The black and white terrier mix is staying with a foster family, who described her as “loving and goofy.”

But if she doesn’t find a forever home soon, she faces being returned to a shelter that has no room for her.

“We really do our dead-level best to hold onto our available dogs and cats for as long as we possibly can,” Josh Henderson, executive director, said. “But as long as we possibly can also comes with a metric of how long we can hold onto the animals in a humane nature.”

And humane does not describe the way some animals in the shelter are living, Henderson said.

The building at 6814 Broadway has 90 cat cages. It’s sheltering 170 cats.

“We do have a number of litters, so we have kittens that are able to share a cage, which is fine at the moment,” Henderson said. “As they grow up and need to spread out, all of our cages are full.”

There are 89 dogs in the shelter’s custody, resulting in cages in hallways. But there’s no more room in the halls to place even one more cage or pop-up kennel.

“That leaves us with an adoption campaign and plea, or looking at euthanasia as a tool to combat overcrowding,” Henderson said. “I know it’s not unique to just us. Animal shelters, animal welfare in general right now really does need the community to step up.”

League City Animal Care last month had 67 dogs, leading to 15 being placed in temporary crates or kennels, according to information from the organization.

Officials have issued a plea to the public to help maintain the no-kill status the shelter has held since 2017.

And while Galveston County shelters have seen a slight uptick in animals after Hurricane Beryl knocked down fences, there’s evidence people using cities both inland and on the island as dumping grounds for animals, officials said.

“A lot of strays are found dogs that people bring in and they’re not League City residents,” Sarah Osborne, League City spokesperson, said. “We know a lot of people who don’t live in our city bring in other animals, but we’re no-kill so it’s no questions asked.”

The common misconception is that a no-kill shelter doesn’t euthanize animals.

Any shelter that stays at or above a 90 percent euthanasia rate is considered no kill, however.

“We blew that statistic out of the water with 93 percent live release last year,” Henderson said. “Our policies are in place to make the most humane decision for the animal, and sometimes the most humane thing to do for that animal is to euthanize it.”

Those cases would be if animal control brought in a cat or dog that had been hit by a vehicle, or if a dog admitted to the shelter has aggressive behavior that would endanger others.

About six months ago, shelter officials were forced to put a young Labrador to sleep because he couldn’t adjust to shelter life and began to harm himself.

The dog thrashed violently around in the kennel, causing injuries.

“As sweet as that dog was, there comes a point where it’s no longer humane to keep it under those conditions,” Henderson said. “I still believe that dog would have made someone a great pet.”

In July, 52 cats and 83 dogs were brought to the Galveston Island Humane Society. Of the 83 dogs, 76 were strays, many from other cities. Microchips in several of the strays placed them inland, but the phone number and email address attached to each goes unanswered.

Officials successfully placed 74 animals that month. But 12 dogs were euthanized.

“We’re hoping to keep those numbers low,” Henderson said. “We would love to clear the shelters, but right now we absolutely have to clear the hallways. If the next phone call I take is animal control saying they’re going to bring four dogs, I do not know where I’m going to put them.”

Overcrowding in Texas shelters led to the intentional death of 82,681 animals last year, according to information from the Best Friends Animal Society, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending euthanasia in animal shelters. The organization has listed Texas as one of two top-priority states with more than 30,000 forced deaths each year.

Last year, 4.76 million cats and dogs across the United States entered shelters. Of those, 3.97 million were live-released.

Adoption isn’t the only way to help animals in shelters. Of the animals in the care of the Galveston Island Humane Society, 63 cats and 16 dogs are in foster homes.

But even fostering for a day or a weekend can provide shelter officials with information that ultimately leads to an animal’s permanent placement.

By taking an animal for even a few hours, members of the public can take photos, video and help document the behavior of the animal outside of a shelter.

“We can do a lot with the dogs we have here, but we can’t replicate what it looks like for a dog to be at home watching movies on the couch,” Henderson said. “Just the mental break of allowing the animals to get out of the facility really helps.”

Foster families, as well as rescue groups, are credited with success at the Galveston County Animal Resource Center, as well as shelters across the region.

“Fostering pets not only helps us empty kennels, but also allows them the much needed opportunity to decompress from the stress of the kennel environment and help us to learn more about who they are,” officials with League City Animal Care said. “This helps us better place animals with adopters.”

Other shelters weigh as much on Henderson’s mind as the Galveston Island Humane Society.

“As our red alert has taken over Facebook, I almost feel guilty seizing further media attention,” he said. “I know it’s not unique to just us.”