Animal Welfare League Sees Overcrowding

PIERCETON – The Animal Welfare League closed their cat intake this week after taking in more felines than they have room for.
Tonya Blanchard, AWL executive director, said, “We can nicely house 100 cats, no problem. Everybody’s got their own spot and their own play areas.”
The AWL is currently housing 211 cats at the shelter, and that doesn’t include the kittens that are in foster care.
The shelter is close to capacity for dogs, as well. Blanchard said the shelter can hold 85 dogs. Jordyn Walker, lead lab tech, can take a maximum of 10 dogs in at this time. The shelter likes to keep a couple cages open in case of emergencies like animals getting loose due to fireworks over the holidays.
In April alone, the AWL took in 130 cats and 75 dogs, said Blanchard. Those included seven dogs seized from a home in Warsaw by Animal Control and 11 dogs impounded due to a vehicle accident in Warsaw.
The AWL is also expecting 30-plus cats from a residence in Warsaw.
Walker talked about some of the factors of what may be contributing to why there are so many animals currently housed at the shelter.
“Strays are a big one. We’ve gotten a lot like hoarding/overbreeding situations recently, so that’s definitely for dogs. We’ve gotten a lot of those. For cats, it’s just strays,” she said. Trap Neuter Return is going out, trapping cats and having them neutered.
It is also the middle of kitten season. Cat adoption tech Rae King said kitten season starts in the middle of March and goes into the summer. She said the shelter gets a lot of orphaned kittens “so that’s a lot of bottled babies for our fosters to care for and if we are out of fosters, (AWL staff members) end up taking them home and doing that. So that’s where our fosters are kind of our lifeline when it comes to kitten season. They help a lot because there’s only so much you can do in-house for a kitten that needs fed every two hours,” King said.
“We’re used to getting one or two animals dropped off, but we’re not used to getting 30 at a time. It’s crazy,” Blanchard said.
When there’s as many animals at the shelter as there are now, Walker said staff are “moving them around to make space and moving any animals causes a lot of stress, anxiety, things like that. So it’s been kind of a lot, especially for the Cat House when we kind of had cats spaced out pretty decently, and then we find out we’re getting 30 at once. And now we have to clear out a whole section to be able to fit those, squeeze them in where we can.”
King said animals are more susceptible to illness when they’re stressed. “So the higher the stress, the more sickness you’re going to see. So we have a really good system, but when you add 40 more cats to that system, you know, it makes things” difficult. she said.
Currently, there is a waitlist of 65 cats and at least 30 dogs to get into the shelter.
“So we need adoptions. We need adoptions. We need adoptions,” Blanchard said.
Blanchard said besides adoptions, the shelter is also in need of fosters. “We’re very needy right now. It’s very sad,” she said.
Currently, the AWL is holding a Bissell Pet Foundation Empty the Shelters adoption event, where adoption fees for kittens are $50; adults/senior cats, $25; and adult/senior dogs, $50. Puppies are excluded.
On May 16, there will be an adoption event at R&B Car Company, 2105 Biomet Drive, Warsaw, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., where all of the adoptions fees will be sponsored.
There are 10 to 12 long-term cats that have been at the AWL for more than six months and they’re all adults, King said. The shelter needs cats to be adopted, but mainly adult cats because they’re the ones more likely to be overlooked.
Blanchard and Brooklyn Lyon, adoption specialist and social media coordinator, talked about some of the things the shelter is doing to help pet owners.
“It’s hard to own pets these days with everything increasing,” Lyon said.
Blanchard said the AWL will provide pet owners the ability to drop cats and dogs off at the AWL to get them spayed or neutered. The AWL will take the animal to the Elkhart Humane Society, where they have a full vet clinic, to get spayed or neutered and the owner then can pick them back up at the AWL. There are 15 spots available on Thursdays for this service, Lyon said. Cats and dogs have to be between 8 weeks and 7 years. The service for cats is $90 and for dogs it costs $130.
Blanchard said the AWL is also having their first vaccine clinic June 5. Cost is $25 for dogs or cats.
Lyon said the idea was to help create a more affordable way of dealing with pet costs to help minimize people surrendering their pets due to costs.