princeton – When a dog is dumped along the side of a road, it will sit there for days hoping that its owners will come back and bring it home.
It’s a sad situation that shelter directors are seeing more often these days. Dogs dropped off alongside a road are an increasing common sight and a problem animals shelters face as their kennels stay full.
There are instances when people moving to new locations simply leave their pets behind rather than take the time to bring them along. Sharon Sagety, director of the McDowell County Humane Society’s shelter in Superior, said many of the dogs brought to her have been abandoned.
“I actually think this year has been the worst I’ve ever experienced,” Sagety said. “So many animals are being dropped on the roadsides, and we are getting so many that are totally malnourished. They’re just skin and bones.”
One veterinarian who had been given a dog found along a roadway brought it to Sagety. It was starving.
“It was the skinniest dog that I had ever seen,” she recalled.
The dog had been taken to the vet to be euthanized, but the vet said “that this dog could make it with care and a lot of TLC,” Sagety said. “It weighed 10 pounds.”
That starved dog has put on 17 pounds since being rescued, but its case is not unusual. In a similar case, a large-breed puppy that weighed only 3 pounds now weighs 20 pounds.
“We’re seeing so many that are completely starved to death,” she said. “We’re full. We don’t have room for any more, and we don’t have the manpower. Food (price) has gone up. Veterinary care has skyrocketed.”
Sagety said abandoned dogs linger at the places where their owners have dropped them off.
“I don’t think they have a heart,” she added. “Drop an animal off and drive away. That dog or puppy will sit there for several days waiting for somebody to come back. It’s sad.”
Abandoned dogs and cats often arrive at the Mercer County Animal Shelter as well.
“We get a lot of animals that have been just dumped on the side of the road,” Director Stacey Harman said.
In one case, a woman left a dog in the shelter’s parking lot after being told that the kennels were full.
“They just dump them in the parking lot or at the Frontage Road,” she said. “And when we say we’re full, they just dump them, which is a really big strain.”
The Mercer County Animal Shelter has declared a Code Red situation twice this year. Code Reds are when euthanasia may have to be considered in order to reduce crowding. Adoption events with lowered adoption fees and fees covered during a specific period by Grant’s Supermarket have helped the shelter’s personnel avoid such a decision.
A committee working on getting a low-cost spay/neuter clinic for Mercer County recently announced plans to open a temporary location at the former Hills Department Store shopping center in Green Valley.
County Commissioner Gene Buckner, who is the committee’s chairman, said fundraising is underway. Buckner can be contacted at 304-920-8334.