Montgomery County Animal Shelter issues plea due to overcrowding

Montgomery County Animal Shelter (MCAS) needs loving families to adopt some of the pets that are currently in its care. The shelter is over capacity, particularly with dogs that are having to be housed two to a kennel.

As the shelter continues to receive animals daily, these dogs need adopters, foster families and rescue partners.

“Currently all pet adoption fees are reduced to just $10 for National Love Your Pet Day. All adoptable pets will be vaccinated, dewormed, microchipped and spayed or neutered,” said Aaron Johnson, director in an emailed plea. “We hope our community will show us some love. We ask everyone to tell your family, friends and coworkers that the Montgomery County Animal Shelter needs their help. We encourage you to foster one of our animals or join our volunteer team – daily dog walkers are always needed. We appreciate all who adopt, foster, volunteer or simply help to spread the word that the shelter needs its’ community’s help. Every bit of help we receive directly benefits the animals.”

According to Johnson, shelters all across the country are facing exceptional challenges with respect to capacity and staffing.

“Simply put, shelters cannot save their animals without the support of their communities. There are 85 million pet-owning households in the U.S. If we just had another 2 percent of pet-owning households foster one pet a year, we could end preventable euthanasia in shelters. Simply put, we are at a very critical capacity point,” Johnson said.

The most pressing need at the moment is to find placements for medium to extra-large dogs that are currently housed in the MCAS kennel runs.

“We would be so grateful for our community’s help in getting more of our animals into loving homes!” Johnson said.

About Montgomery County Animal Shelter

MCAS is Montgomery County’s animal shelter facility, a county that covers over 1,000 square miles. We encounter many unique challenges in dealing with animals as we service suburban as well as rural areas. The shelter is open Tuesday – Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. for adoptions. For more information, visit http://www.mcaspets.org or email Shelter.Counter@mctx.org.