The Red Desert Humane Society in Rock Springs has had a full house since early this summer.
Shelter manager Heidi Driggs said an influx of animals from shelters across the country are adding to locally surrendered pets, putting them at capacity.
“ We get a lot of animals from Texas and New Mexico, which are two of the worst euthanization states because they're so overpopulated,” said Driggs. “They'll euthanize a perfectly happy, healthy dog just for space to bring in another dog because they have so many coming in.”
Driggs said they do what they can to take in as many pets as possible, like keeping dogs or cats that get along with others, such as littermates, together. But about a month ago, it was tight quarters, and the need kept coming.
“ We were getting more calls in a week than we normally get in a month for owner surrenders,” she said. “It's really weird. It's very up and down at the most random times.”
The shelter is a separate nonprofit organization from the city-run Rock Springs Animal Control.
According to Driggs, pets are also commonly surrendered around the holidays. When they’re full, the shelter still tries to track who needs help so they can step in when they’re able.
“ We do start an owner surrender list, or we have people call us back in, like, two to three weeks to see where we're at,” Driggs said. “Most of the time, though, we've already got lists of owner surrenders. We have shelters that have asked for help that are waiting for us.”
Driggs said it’s not uncommon for people to surrender their pets for behavioral issues that could have been addressed with proper training. Those kinds of surrenders started increasing after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would say, like, 2022, 2023, is when we really started seeing the behavioral issue surrenders, because people got these cute little puppies or they adopted. Shelters and rescues couldn't keep dogs in 2020 when COVID was going on. Everyone wanted an animal,” Driggs said. “But what everyone didn't want to do was actually put in the work after we could all get back out into public again, and then their dogs had all these issues.”
Pets that come to the shelter for behavioral issues may not get the extra training they need while they’re there. More adoptions and a willingness to work with an adopted pet that needs extra training will help free up space.
Driggs also recommends spaying and neutering pets to avoid accidental litters.
