No room at the shelter – Wise County Animal Control and local rescue groups deal with crowding
BLACKWOOD – Wise County Animal Control Officer Scott Wells and County Shelter Manager Carrie Meade had their hands full Thursday, and the annual post-Christmas surrender of new pets was still a few months away.
A sign on the county Animal Shelter’s door said the building was full and not accepting any more animals for now. Inside, the kennels were filled with dogs and the cat area also was at capacity.
Meade said the shelter has taken in 1,545 cats and dogs through Dec. 27 from the county and Norton. Despite working with area rescue organizations like the Wise County Animal Rescue Coalition and PAWS to transport almost 1,100 cats and dogs to rescue and adoption groups in central and Northern Virginia, the shelter still remains at capacity.
“In the last six months, if we send three to five dogs out for rescue, we get double back in their place,” said Animal Control Officer Scott Wells, one of two officers assigned to the shelter. “I’ve been here three years and every time this time of year we go through this.”
In 2020, Meade said, the shelter received 2,213 animals and in 2021 another 1,757 dogs and cats arrived. Out of that number, only about 70 dogs and cats have been adopted locally.
Requests for adoptions climbed with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Meade said, but several factors have combined to keep occupancy high.
“With the economy the way it’s been, a lot of people can’t afford to keep pets,” said Meade. “Even our younger generation, with more of them having to move back with their parents, may not be able to bring their pets with them.”
“We’ve also seen a lot of pets brought to us after their elderly owners have died,” Meade added. “They were companion dogs and cats, often smaller dogs, and then they’re in a shelter environment and it’s confusing and a shock to them.”
Animals also may come to the shelter after owners have been arrested or injured in vehicle crashes, Meade said.
Getting people to consider adopting older animals or even go through a rescue organization has been a challenge, Meade and Wells agreed.
“If you get a dog or cat, it turns into a lifelong companion,” said Wells. “It’s not a toy you can just put away. You’ve got to feed it and take care of its medical bills. If you go somewhere, it has to be taken care of.”
Tammy Vanover with the Wise County Animal Rescue Coalition visits the shelter frequently to help care for the animals and to coordinate transports of animals to Staunton, Virginia so rescue groups can help find adopters.
“When a dog or cat comes into the shelter, they’re supposed to get basic vaccinations such as rabies, Bordetella and other shots,” said Vanover. “Groups like PAWS have helped with that, but vaccine costs have climbed. Homeward Trails Animal Rescue from Fairfax Station has agreed to help fund those costs.”
Vanover’s WCARC works with the shelter on adoptions, and potential adopters have to fill out an application and commit to having the animal spayed or neutered and given a veterinary exam within a certain time after adoption.
“What I do here is a band aid solution,” Vanover said of organizing transfers out of the shelter. “This is not a long-term solution.”
Typically, within about two to four months after Christmas, Wells said, the shelter starts seeing an uptick in people wanting to surrender those gift pets because they have become a nuisance or too much to handle.
“Right now, people are still off on vacation and the kids are still out of school,” said Wells, “but a few days after the holidays are over, they start to realize what a commitment that pet is.”
“It sems like at Christmas, instead of adopting from here, everyone wants to go out and buy a puppy,” said Meade. “Four to six months later, they’re here wanting to turn it over to us.”
Wells said handling unwanted dogs and cats is only part of Animal Control’s job. Around lunchtime Thursday, Wells had to go to St. Paul to handle a call about a dog hit by a vehicle. On his return, he had to put his lunch in the refrigerator and respond to a call at Correctional Camp 18 near Coeburn to help free a hawk that got caught in concertina wire on the perimeter.
“People call here a lot asking us to come right away and pick up a dog they don’t want, and we have to tell them that’s only part of our job,” Wells said.
For more information on how to adopt a pet:
– Wise County VA Animal Shelter on Facebook, or call (276) 679-6750
– Wise County Animal Rescue Coalition – Facebook: www.facebook.com/wisecountyarc or online at wisecouuntyarc.org
