The Fairbanks North Star Borough Animal Shelter is at capacity for dogs, with limited options for those that can’t be adopted out quickly.
Earlier this week, a chorus of barks and cries coming from dogs looking for new homes filled the shelter’s kennel rooms. The facility is seeing at least twice as many dogs being dropped off as adopted out, said shelter operations supervisor Kimberly Imbert.
“Because people have job changes. They have unforeseen lifestyle changes. Those are the two big reasons that we’re seeing dogs coming in,” she said.
Imbert said the situation is unusual but in line with a national trend. She said the number of dogs surrendered at the borough shelter currently exceeds the indoor kennel capacity allotted for them.
“We pick the number 26 because that leaves enough open kennels so that we can take in strays, and we have 40 dogs indoors right now, so we are completely full,” she said.
The shelter also has a fenced outdoor area with dog houses and tethers, but Imbert said for safety reasons that’s only for dogs accustomed to being tied out. She said when capacity is tight the shelter has to make tough decisions about which dogs are more likely to be adopted.
“We have to look at their health, if they are spayed and neutered and their temperament,” she said. “And then when we are this full, there’s only a certain amount of surgeries that can generally be done in a day by our shelter veterinarian, so then we’re looking at who our fast-track adoption candidates, because if we can get those spayed and neutered first, they can move out of here quicker.”
Imbert said the shelter aims to find homes for all the dogs and there’s also the possibility of transfer to an animal rescue group or finding a foster home, but a grim reality comes into play.
“Euthanasia is the most efficient way to make space, because putting a dog in foster takes time and if one dog comes in we can take that time,” she said. “If five dogs come in, we’re in a bind.”
Imbert encouraged people to try the borough’s online “Home to Home” platform to re-home their dogs before bringing them to the shelter.
“Ideally you would plan ahead and try to re-home your animal yourself, because we only want to be here for the animals that truly, truly need us,” she said.
She also noted that adoption rates at the shelter fluctuate and she’s optimistic that they will pick up, emphasizing that the process is fairly simple, and starts with making an appointment.
“But we do accept walk-ins when there’s availability, so you come in, you visit with the animals, the care staff goes over everything we know about the animal, and we go over any care instructions that we have,” she said. “If they’ve just had spay or neuter surgery, they may need special care for two weeks. And then, at that point, if you decide to adopt the animal, you go to the front desk, you show them your ID, pay the adoption fee, sign an agreement and you go home with your animal.”
Imbert said the shelter is offering half-off adoption fees for all animals this week.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
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