ST. LOUIS — One of Downtown St. Louis’s largest animal adoption centers is overwhelmed with animals, particularly dogs.
In a little over a week animal control brought in more than 70 dogs to CARE STL Adoption Center and they’re in desperate need of help.
In a space that's built to handle only 70 dogs, there are more than double that in the dog kennel area and throughout the shelter.
“We are going on our fifth year and on our first year, our intake is about 800. But right now, we're about 3,000. And we are using the same shelter, the same space. So it's a revolving door in a way where ten animals come in, maybe eight will go out for adoptions,” CARE STL CEO Weng Horak said.
She said they need about 50 of them fostered because they're in places they normally wouldn't be staying here at the shelter.
“We have set up more crates in this building. This is our cat building. But yeah, we did set up some crates here because we are expecting more that are going to come in, in the next day or so,” Horak said.
Horak says this is a nationwide issue and one of the reasons is inflation.
“A lot of people cannot afford to pay for their house and they get evicted. We've seen a lot of eviction cases and there are eight dogs actually from eviction order or people who can no longer afford to buy dog food or medication for their dog. So sadly, some of them will just release them in the street,” Horak said.
While they can find space for cats they're running out of room there too.
“We thought the kitten season was over. It's not, we are still getting moms and kittens,” Horak said.
CARE STL said they have 80 cats at the shelter and 200 in foster homes.
“We need volunteers as well because the shelter is so full,” Horak said.
If you'd like to help foster a dog or cat you can drop in at the shelter between 10 am and 5 pm or arrange another time with staff.
They also need donations of supplies and more volunteers, click here for more information.