Vermont animal shelters struggling with influx of unwanted pets

BARTON, Vt. (WCAX) – An influx of animals is overwhelming shelters across Vermont. Now, the overflow has some calling for change in Montpelier.

At the Pope Memorial Frontier Animal Shelter in the Northeast Kingdom, staffers are seeing more cats and dogs than ever before.

“A lot of dogs here, they come here from a lot of different situations. They have certain behaviors. We get to know them, and Diva has definitely become one of our favorites,” said Mary Lovegrove of the Pope Memorial Frontier Animal Shelter.

Diva has been at the animal shelter in Barton for about two years. She was a stray, and like many other animals, was brought to the shelter by animal control.

“We really had a huge influx of intakes, with both cats and dogs, because of the sheer amount of people bringing in animals that they couldn’t take care or that they found,” Lovegrove said.

For the past year and a half, officials at the animal shelter have been seeing more cats and dogs than ever before.

Last year, the shelter had 68 cats and only adopted out a few. Now, they have about 100 cats.

The shelter also has about a dozen dogs with a waiting list for more to get in.

Shelter Manager Jessica Reilly said they are utilizing every part of the building to accommodate the need.

“I had to really look around the building and see what could be done differently. I have had to take, you know, over there was my litter closet. We have transformed it into a beautiful cat room,” Reilly said.

Orleans County Animal Control Officer Renee Falconer said she gets calls daily to collect stray cats and dogs left on the streets. She tries to help by fostering many of the animals, taking in 17 dogs over the course of the year.

“Some of the other organizations throughout the state that may not be focused on so much on Vermont, they are focused on bringing dogs and other animals from out of the area. But if we don’t start making changes here in Vermont, our shelters are going to become kill shelters,” Falconer said.

Falconer said she and others are forming a group to plead with the Legislature to help tame the growing number of shelter animals across Vermont.

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