Summerville animal shelter full 30+dogs, puppies put down Mon & Tues (Atlanta: home, live)

[SafeHarbor]

Chattooga County animal control has announced that it is is entirely full and will have to kill young healthy dogs and pups just to make room for incoming dogs on Monday and Tuesday, April 7th and 8th. Many of the pups are so young and just darling. You can see many of them on petfinder.com. There are no pull fees for rescues.

[cool_mommy]

This absolutely breaks my heart. I have to say that I am amazed at the amount of puppies and kittens that are put to sleep in our area, as well as the older animals. When I lived up north I adopted two puppies from the same shelter over a couple year period. Both puppies had been transported north from southern shelters. I was told that this was a fairly regular occurence. You can't keep puppies in the shelters up north, a littler will be adopted out within days. I wish the same were true for the adult animals. I don't understand why there are so many puppies and kittens that appear to be unadoptable here.

[Katsmeeyow]

I really hate this so much! It is so sad and pointless. As a future resident of LaFayette, is there any thing can be done? Perhaps lobbying for a larger shelter? (Yes, i know that is just a bandaid on the problem, but it's a start).

I am one of those who gets a daily newsletter from petfinder.com, and have always adopted from a shelter or been given a pet. My heart is bigger than my capacity though, and I simply HATE that these pets are having to be put down. I am a realist (most of the time) and know some of this must happen, but, come on, this shelter is way too small! I really feel for those that work there every day and know that they are going to have to watch some of these animals put down. I bet most of them have taken home as many as possible, or called family and friends to take some. It takes a certain kind of strength and dedication to face this every day and still come to work. Bless you!

[Katsmeeyow]

Originally Posted by SafeHarbor

Chattooga County animal control has announced that it is is entirely full and will have to kill young healthy dogs and pups just to make room for incoming dogs on Monday and Tuesday, April 7th and 8th. Many of the pups are so young and just darling. You can see many of them on petfinder.com. There are no pull fees for rescues.

Please explain what "pull fees" are? Most folks will not know.

[cpowers21]

This is so sad. There are states that have started programs to ship dogs from shelters to the Northern States. People in the New England area are on waiting lists to adopt pets. I know PetsMart also has a program like this.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by cpowers21

This is so sad. There are states that have started programs to ship dogs from shelters to the Northern States. People in the New England area are on waiting lists to adopt pets.

Yet another check point for us here in the South, huh? "#242.. not caring for and neutering pets".

Short of posting this on tons of forums though, there's little that can be done. Numerous counties around here are overflowing with strays at the shelters. It's a sad situation overall.

I live 25 miles West of Atlanta and on any given week I probably have 2-5 strays wonder through my yard. I catch the friendlier ones (who NEVER seem to have collars), and have animal control pick them up. A month ago I had an entire family of four dogs that someone dumped at my place (parents and two pups). All three of my own dogs were dumped/stray dogs as well.

It's a HUGE problem down here. Since the concept of spaying and neutering dogs, and properly containing dogs is so foreign to so many here, the ONLY way they're going to curb it is to start imposing fines of around $1,000+ to people who allow their dogs to breed without proper permits, and/or escape their yards and wonder around. Common sense doesn't work - money (in the way of fines) however, talks.