[Animals] Animal Allies heading toward an ‘animal welfare crisis’

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DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) - Kitten and puppy season is here and a Duluth humane society says they are dangerously close to an animal welfare crisis. Over the weekend, Animal Allies had an out-of-town resident bring in 11 dogs. This large surrender put the humane society far over capacity with 37 dogs now in their care and only 27 kennels available. To help fix the current overpo[CENSORED]tion in the shelter, they are lowering the prices on all of their long-term resident canines to $100 plus tax. They hope that will help their chances of getting adopted and making space in the kennels. The culprit of such a large intake at shelters is pet owners not getting their animals spayed or neutered. Adoption Manager Nicole Facciotto says this trend is difficult to manage. “We have been seeing a pretty big influx in the amount of dogs needing placement here in our community and a drop in how quickly they are getting adopted,” said Facciotto. “It’s causing a bottleneck, and we have a lot of dogs who have been hanging out here for quite some time.” Animal Allies says those long-term resident canines are usually the ones who are older or don’t have the best kennel presence in that environment. “If you had to sit in your room all day with limited exercise and limited toys, how would you perform if you then had to go to school and do a task and be on your best behavior? It would be really hard without that outlet to get your energy drained,” says Facciotto. Medical Manager Kelsey Pettit adds their reputation of being able to take in rescues from all across the country has also been hurt by this canine surrender trend throughout the last two years. “Minnesota used to be this kind of mecca for southern states like we were able to take in transports of dogs from high po[CENSORED]ted areas and high kill shelters, we don’t have that luxury anymore,” says Pettit. Animal Allies has taken in 635 animals so far this year, many of them local. Some of these dogs have been sitting in kennels since January, and now they’re hoping the community will step up to help foster and adopt. To help make pet care more accessible, Animal Allies has a free microchip clinic on Thursday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. to help avoid any lost dog situations ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.

https://www.northernnewsnow.com/2024/06/25/animal-allies-heading-toward-an-animal-welfare-crisis/