The situation at the Hardin County Animal Shelter is getting hairy.
“A lot of other shelters refer to it as Code Red,” said Animal Shelter Director Mike McNutt. “What that means is they are going to have to make decisions that involve their current ‘No Kill’ or ‘Pro Life’ status.”
McNutt says the shelter is well over capacity.
“We currently have 124 pets in the shelter, and 86 of those are dogs,” said McNutt. “We have completely run out of kennel space and are having to house strays in our recovery areas because there is nowhere else to put them.”
In order to alleviate the strain, the shelter is running a Dog Days of Summer Special, where adoption fees are being waived for all dogs five months and older. The dogs will still be spayed or neutered, will be microchipped, and will receive their first round of shots.
McNutt says the special, however, is complicated by competition from other shelters facing similar issues.
“All shelters in the state of Kentucky, and most shelters across the nation right now, are running specials because we know that the first quarter of this year we took in 14 percent more stray dogs than we did the past three to five years,” McNutt said. “If that trend continues we’re looking at a horrible, horrible year for us.”
While shelter staff work to take care of the dogs, Animal Control officers are working hard to help found dogs find their way home instead of coming to the shelter.
“A lot of people think they’re being helpful by stopping and picking up a stray,” McNutt said. “If you want to be helpful, call us and give us an exact address of where the stray or roaming dog is and let us do our job.”
The shelter is located at 220 Peterson Drive in Elizabethtown, and is open from 12 to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. You can call the shelter at 270-765-3428.
