MONTGOMERY COUNTY — It’s another shelter in animal crisis.
The Montgomery County Animal Shelter is just the latest rescue that’s gone way beyond capacity, and now desperately asking for adoptions.
Kennel after kennel, there's not an empty cage in sight.
“It’s the most that we’ve had in the shelter since I've been working here," Director Aaron Johnson said.
Johnson says they got in 80 animals on Tuesday alone, putting their cage calculations to just over 900 – way over capacity.
“We are going to get more today. When I last looked, we’d already taken in 20 animals," Johnson said.
Summer months are notoriously busy for animal shelters.
“There’s a lot more litters coming in, puppies, kittens," Johnson said.
But this year, Johnson says it’s been worse.
“Anecdotally, I believe that the owner surrenders are up just a little bit, and I think some of that is due to Harvey," Johnson said.
He says they’ve seen hundreds more than last year. The only difference – a hurricane.
“People were running out of vouchers for places to live or when they did find a new place, that place didn’t allow pets," Johnson said.
It's why they have now decided to offer free adoptions all weekend long. But there’s more you can do than just adopt.
“if you have an extra bathroom, that’s an easy place for foster kittens," Johnson said.
Bottom line – it’s not a problem they can solve on their own.
“This is a community-wide problem, so unless we all come together as a community, it’s going to be very difficult for us to solve," Johnson said.
Adoptions are available every day from 11:30a.m. to 5:00p.m. Once again, they will be free all weekend long.