‘It’s going to take all of us’: D-FW animal shelters are overcapacity, urging adoptions

Felicity, Gino, Kirby, Jerry, Cuddles, Taquito, Abraham.

These dogs are among the dozens in the rows upon rows of packed kennels at Chuck & Brenda Silcox Animal Care & Adoption Center in Fort Worth. Dogs ranging from pitbulls to German shepherds howled, barked and hopped against the metal fence this month as the shelter’s superintendent Anastasia Ramsey walked through, wearing a shirt that read “Rescue Animals.” 

Despite a line of people looking for pets outside the doors each morning, Silcox is significantly overcrowded, as are Dallas Animal Services and Fort Worth’s other city shelter, Henry’s Animal Campus. 

Fort Worth Animal Care and Control and Dallas Animal Services have spent months operating beyond capacity as summer brings a surge of stray animals while adoptions fail to keep pace. 

Shelter officials say they need more residents to adopt, foster and volunteer to avoid having to euthanize animals due to overcrowding.

Outside of Dallas Animal Services on July 2, Hayden Hast, 25, sat on a bench with a cardboard box containing three skinny black Pitbull mix puppies, as she waited to be helped by a shelter employee. 

Her friend found them stranded in an alley, so Hast brought them to the shelter, which Dallas Animal Services head of marketing Jennifer Smith said is unfortunately a daily occurrence. 

Summer typically leads to animal shelters operating at overcapacity due to lower adoption rates, a busy puppy and kitten season and an increase in stray animal intake, Ramsey said.

Related: Surge of sick, wounded animals is overwhelming North Texas wildlife rehabilitators

At both Dallas Animal Services and Fort Worth Animal Care, intake numbers are rising while adoptions fall in the summer. In June, Dallas took in 1,319 animals, with only 786 adoptions. Fort Worth took in 1,788 animals, with only 781 adoptions in the same month. 

As of July 15, Silcox was at 84% capacity for cats and kittens and 115% for dogs, forcing several to be housed in temporary outdoor kennels. 

On July 10, Fort Worth’s second animal shelter, Henry’s Campus, was at 112% overall capacity, according to the shelter’s superintendent Melanie Peña.

Dallas Animal Services has been operating at overcapacity for a year now, Smith said.

As of July 13, Dallas Animal Services was at 98% capacity for cats and 152% overcapacity for dogs, meaning several dogs are forced to share kennels.

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“Right now, it’s not feasible for either of our city shelters, because there’s a great need for pets that need homes, and there’s a great need for people that just can’t afford their pets,” Smith said. 

Fort Worth Animal Care takes in about 16,000 animals each year and Dallas Animal Services takes in 23,000, according to Sophia Proler, Best Friends Animal Society’s south central regional director. Best Friends Animal Society is a nonprofit that works with animal shelters across the country, including Fort Worth Animal Care and Dallas Animal Services, to end euthanization.

Even with high numbers, the animal shelters are striving to be no-kill shelters and prioritize euthanization for dangerous or unhealthy animals, Proler said. But when the shelters reach overcapacity, shelter administrations are faced with the difficult decision of euthanizing animals.

“Euthanasia is always a last resort,” Ramsey said. “Before reaching that point, we exhaust every available option to create space.”

Due to the overcrowding, Fort Worth Animal Care and Dallas Animal Services have made pleas on Facebook for residents to adopt and foster.

Besides increasing social media promotion, the two animal facilities have amped up community events and local partnerships to encourage fostering and adoption. 

Silcox has increased offsite adoption events, filled their partner PetSmart locations with animals and provided more resources for people fostering, including pet insurance, crates and food, Ramsey said. 

Related: Dallas’ animal shelter is full. What can we do?

Jashanti Mackey, 28, and her son Josiah Mackey, 4, were among a crowd of hopeful adopters in line to enter Silcox when it opened at noon on July 1. The group entered the lobby, with its walls decorated with colorfully painted dogs and cats and handcrafted “adopt me” signs.

The Mackeys had become familiar faces at the shelter as they searched for a service dog for Josiah, who has autism, Jashanti Mackey said. 

Within minutes of entering the puppy room, they had finally found the one. Jashanti held a 5-week-old shepherd and retriever mix puppy as Josiah looked up from below.“It’s so cute!” Josiah exclaimed over and over.

Earlier that morning, Ramsey went into the kennel room and retrieved Emilia, whom she described as “the Fort Worth special” or a cattle dog mix with mismatched blue and brown eyes. Putting her into a blue rope leash, Ramsey took her to the outside play area. 

Emilia rolled onto her back in the grass to receive stomach pets and smothered Ramsey’s face with slobbery kisses. Emilia is Ramsey’s current favorite in the shelter, and is a frequent visitor in the office as she works. 

After leaving the play area, Ramsey entered the cat room where the cats and kittens curled up against the plexiglass and snuggled into the corners of their kennels. 

In one kennel, Gizmo, a 9-month-old domestic longhair cat, almost seemed to pose as Ramsey passed by. “She knows that she’s beautiful and acts like she’s beautiful,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey has adopted from her own workplace – a standoffish, sassy long-haired tortoiseshell cat Noami, who doubles as her office cat. 

Related: D-FW animal shelters are over capacity. Here’s how you can help

Fort Worth Animal Care and Dallas Animal Services are currently waiving adoption fees to encourage more adoption. If interested, people can enter a facility and leave with a new pet the same day after a simple application process.

For those who can’t commit to a long-term adoption, the facilities offer many short-term fostering programs, from taking an animal out for a day to fostering for a few weeks.

For people who are not in a position to adopt or foster but still want to help, the shelters encourage spreading information on the animals and volunteering.

At Silcox, Ramsey said one of the most impactful things people can do is help with their shelter enrichment program, which provides animals with a new toy to enjoy in their kennels.

“The more you can lower their stress, the more relaxed they appear, and that’s usually more appealing to our adopters,” Ramsey said.

The shelters are also making efforts to curb the number of lost pets that land in their shelters, which is where 70% of animal shelter intakes come from, Proler said.

Dallas Animal Services recently launched a pilot program with Best Friends Animal Society that offers free microchipping and pet identification tags, which make it easier for people to locate lost pets.

Related: Dallas Animal Services gets help with overcrowding thanks to SMU students fostering pets

Whether the shelters are under or over capacity, the employees are always advocating for the best lives of the animals, and encouraging residents to adopt and foster.

“There is someone for everyone in our animal shelters, whether you’re looking for a long-haired cat or an energetic puppy for your kids to grow,” Proler said. “There’s so many wonderful deserving pets in our shelters in communities like Dallas and Fort Worth.”

But, especially when they are overcapacity, the shelters are seeking all the help they can get. 

“It’s going to take all of us, all of the Metroplex, to participate and support the shelters,” Proler said.