Orange County Animal Services overwhelmed after taking in hundreds of dogs in 1 week
By Averi Kremposky
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ORLANDO, Florida (WESH) — Orange County Animal Services say they are becoming overwhelmed by the amount of stray dogs they are taking in.
Following an outbreak of canine pneumovirus that stopped the shelter from accepting any stray dogs, OCAS resumed their normal stray intake last week. OCAS reported that in their first week, which ran from Oct. 30 to Nov. 5, the shelter received 158 dogs.
On Nov. 6 alone, the shelter reports receiving 40 dogs.
With over 200 dogs to care for now, OCAS is asking the community to step forward to adopt, foster or attempt to reunite found dogs with their owners before bringing them to the shelter.
Adoption fees have been waived for those designated as “ready to go,” which are dogs who are already spayed/neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.
“Last week, we announced our new intake diversion program, an attempt to match struggling pet owners with available community resources to keep them out of the shelter,” Diane Summers, manager for Orange County Animal Services, said.
“For some pet owners, the option to keep the pet wasn’t possible, so there’s a line forming of owned dogs needing to come into the shelter that we won’t be able to help until our dog population is more manageable,” Summers said.
Summers said OCAS is not alone in its dog capacity struggle, and that a vast amount of shelters are experiencing similar issues.
“Shelters across the country are struggling with capacity issues as the number of dogs leaving with adopters, foster parents, rescue groups and their owners aren’t keeping pace with the number coming in,” Summers said. “The most heartbreaking realization is that people, in fact, do want to adopt, but the vast majority are looking for small dogs or puppies.”
Summers said the community can help by considering adoption or fostering. Additionally, Summers said that residents who find stray dogs would help tremendously by trying to find the owner instead of bringing the dog to the shelter.
“In reviewing our data, we discovered the majority of lost pets were within one mile of home,” Summers said. “Taking the time to post flyers, post on social media, have the pet scanned for a microchip, can make all the difference in getting that pet back home, and quickly.”
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