Texas Animal Shelter Needs Your Help - Find Out How You Can Help Them Here

It was a difficult Tuesday for the Harris County Animal Shelter. Outside the Houston, Texas organization, there were people lining up with dogs in crates or on leashes, ready to be surrendered. The wait totalled about 2 and a half hours.

This was terrible news for the shelter, which was supposed to max out its capacity at 200 animals. Since the beginning of the summer, that number skyrocketed upwards, and now they have over 500 of them.

Despite how full it is, the shelter is committed to its 90% rate of saving animal lives. Unfortunately, that means very stuffy conditions indoors. Pups are forced to share kennels, each one housing around five or six of them. Sadly, the shelter cannot turn down animals no matter way due to its municipal shelter status.

During the summer, this often means accepting hundreds of them on a weekly basis. This is because of the breeding season, forcing them to take in litters of baby kittens and puppies alike.

People have all sorts of reasons for surrendering these animals. Some say they found them as strays. Others failed to neuter or spay their pups, leading to a huge influx of newborns to look after. Even more cite reasons such as new landlord rules, the difficulty of moving house, and more. In one case, a man and his young son pulled in a whopping six pups to the shelter!

Staff have been up to their necks in chaos. Luckily, they did get a day-off from owner surrenders the next day, and there will be a holiday week soon – but that just means more people may be coming in on open days. That’s why they’re hoping people in their community can adopt or foster. Just helping to take in one or two pets can provide the shelter with more space to save lives.

To help these abandoned animals find homes, you can make a donation to support the shelter. Houston and Harris County residents who can help by temporarily opening their homes to an animal in need can email foster@phs.hctx.net or stop by the shelter.

Images & Feature Image Source: Harris County Animal Shelter