(Fairbanks, AK) The Fairbanks North Star Borough Animal Shelter is at capacity for dogs, with limited options for those that can’t be adopted out quickly. A chorus of barks and cries coming from dogs looking for new homes fills the borough animal shelter’s kennel rooms. Shelter operations supervisor Kimberly Imbert says the facility is seeing at least twice as many dogs being dropped off as adopted out.
“Because people have job changes. They have unforeseen lifestyle changes. Those are the two big reasons that we’re seeing dogs coming in.”
Imbert says the situation is unusual but in line with a national trend. She says the number of dogs surrendered at the borough shelter currently exceeds the indoor kennel capacity allotted for them.
“We pick the number 26 because that leaves enough open kennels so that we can take in strays, and we have 40 dogs indoors right now, so we are completely full.”
The shelter also has a fenced outdoor area with dog houses and tethers, but Imbert says for safety reasons that’s only for dogs accustomed to being tied out. She says when capacity is tight the shelter has to make tough decisions about which dogs are more likely to be adopted.
“We have to look at their health, if they are spayed and neutered and their temperament. And then when we are this full, there’s only a certain amount of surgeries that can generally be done in a day by our shelter veterinarian, so then we’re looking at who our fast-track adoption candidates, because if we can get those spayed and neutered first, they can move out of here quicker.”
Imbert says the shelter aims to find homes for all the dogs and there’s also the possibility of transfer to an animal rescue group or finding a foster home, but a grim reality comes into play.
“Euthanasia is the most efficient way to make space, because putting a dog in foster takes time and if one dog comes in we can take that time…if five dogs come in, we’re in a bind.”
Imbert encourages people to try the borough’s online “Home to Home” platform to re-home their dogs before bringing them to the shelter.
“Ideally you would plan ahead and try to re-home your animal yourself, because we only want to be here for the animals that truly, truly need us.”
She also notes that adoption rates at the shelter fluctuate and is optimistic that they will pick up, emphasizing that the process is fairly simple, and starts with making an appointment.
“But we do accept walk-ins when there’s availability, so you come in, you visit with the animals, the care staff goes over everything we know about the animal, and we go over any care instructions that we have. If they’ve just had spay or neuter surgery, they may need special care for two weeks. And then, at that point if you decide to adopt the animal, you go to the front desk, you show them your ID, pay the adoption fee, sign an agreement and you go home with your animal.”
Imbert says the shelter is offering half off adoption fees for all animals this week. ###