Christ Yoder
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Animal shelter overwhelmed beyond capacity, state says
A metro Atlanta animal shelter has been ordered by the state to stop accepting animals. The DeKalb County Animal Shelter was way over capacity. The staff worked hard to find the animals’ homes.
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. – Staff at the DeKalb County Animal Shelter had to turn away strays. The refuge was filled beyond its capacity.
Officials said a few weeks ago that they had 550 dogs in the facility designed to hold 470. There weren’t even enough kennels for all of them.
“We had to use temporary housing crates, so we couldn’t house the dogs comfortably,” said Cheyenne Hoover of LifeLine Animal Project who runs the shelter.
There were so many people that the Georgia Department of Agriculture had to get involved.
“The Department of Agriculture had to step in and make a stop admission order,” Hoover said.
The Community Support Team is there to offer information and resources, but must refuse any new pets.
“They were like, ‘Sorry, we have an admission stop order. We cannot bring the dog into the facility at this time,'” Hoover said.
The shelter offers free or discounted adoptions, making a big step forward for foster families. They also tell people who find lost animals to post photos on the Nextdoor app and other social media to reunite them with their owner, rather than dropping them off at the shelter.
“I saw it on the website, they had a problem and couldn’t bring any more,” Russell Maraman said.
Maraman decided to come see for himself and ended up finding a new best friend.
“I was looking at shelters and I knew they were in pain, so we thought we’d come and see,” Maraman said. “I found this one and it just clicked.”
With the help of people like Maraman, the number of animals in the shelter has dropped to 400, about 70 below capacity, but the ‘no admittance’ order remains in place.
They hope the Georgia Department of Agriculture will lift it soon.
Anyone interested in helping the shelter can learn more at lifelineanimal.org.
