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Dogs at the Capital Humane Society

Capital Humane Society 100% Capacity, Turning Away Surrendered Dogs

By Chase Porter May 14, 2024 | 2:24 PM

The Capital Humane Society is reporting they have reached full capacity for dogs in their care today, with zero open kennels at either of their shelter locations.

Executive Director Matt Madcharo tells KLIN News they’re reducing adoption fees by 50% for all pets available for adoption — including dogs, cats, and small critters — now through Sunday, May 19th, at the Pieloch Pet Adoption Center. License and rabies deposits may apply.

“We’re just seeing a rapid number of pets coming to the shelter, especially dogs and cats right now,” Madcharo explained. “During the first 13 days of May, we’ve had 289 pets come through our doors… and during that same timeframe, we’ve only had 192 pets leave. So we’ve had 100 more pets come into the shelter’s doors than have left so far this month.”

This is the fullest Capital Humane Society has been since 2022, according to Madcharo.

“It’s really kind of a crisis. It’s very urgent,” he said, adding that a one week adoption promotion is only a “band aid” solution.

“It’ll help in the short term, but really, what needs to happen in the long term is we got to get more pets spayed and neutered,” Madcharo prescribed.  “Ultimately, that will result in less pets coming to the shelter.”

The Capital Humane Society’s recently opened Stransky Veterinary Center, located on 56th and “O” Street, offers affordable spay/neuter services and has shown success in their first few months since opening in March.

Across their two facilities, Capital Humane has a total of 104 dog kennels, “and there’s 104 dogs in those dog kennels,” Madcharo reported.

At 100% capacity, Madcharo says the Capital Humane staff ultimately must stretch resources thin to provide care to every dog.

“When every single kennel is full, that’s a lot of staff time that has to be dedicated to cleaning, feeding, making sure they have water, taking them out to the bathroom, enrichment, all those things,” he described.

Due to the sheer capacity of dogs, Madcharo said he has made the tough call to stop accepting surrendered dogs into the shelters care unless it’s a true emergency situation.

“So those pets are going to need to go onto our wait list to be surrendered…simply because we are completely out of space.,” he said.

If adoption is not an option, there are other ways to help the Capital Humane Society during this time:

  • Consider adopting a new canine companion during the adoption promotion. (medical care, food, and supplies provided)
  • If you are unable to adopt, help spread the word to friends and family members who may be interested in adopting a new canine companion.
  • Sign up to be a foster parent on the Capital Humane Society website.
  • Utilize the Capital Humane Society Lost & Found map to reunite pets with owners swiftly.

“Ultimately, all of these things are just band aids,” Madcharo admitted. “The only long term solution to all of this is going to be getting more pets spayed and neutered, even if we can get a hundred dogs spay to neuter today… It’s going to take probably several years of really focused efforts on spaying and neutering pets in the community before we’re going to alleviate this flood of dogs coming to the shelter.”

Visit stranskyveterinarycenter.org for more information on their affordable services.

Hours at the Pieloch Pet Adoption Center (6500 South 70th Street) are:

  • Tuesday-Friday — 11:30am-7:00pm
  • Saturday-Sunday — 12:00pm-5:00pm