Already faced with a significant problem of overcrowding, the Austin Animal Center’s capacity has been further taxed by the addition of more than 40 small dogs that were surrendered by the same owner over the weekend.
“The Travis County Constable’s Office alerted us that they were going to be issuing a writ of possession for a home and believed there were at least 20 dogs inside,” said Don Bland, Chief Animal Services Officer. “When our Animal Protection Officers arrived, they found over 40.”
The owner surrendered all of the dogs to the shelter as part of an eviction case in Travis County.
“Thankfully several of our out-of-state rescues came forward when we put the call out to our partners to help with these dogs,” Bland said. “When we get notified about an impending eviction like this, we have no choice but to find somewhere to put these dogs. We’ve been operating overcapacity for months now, and we’re starting to see an increase in people needing to surrender due to evictions. We really need our community to come out and foster and adopt so that we have open kennels for cases like these.”
The shelter is currently at 142% capacity for all dogs.
More information about fostering or adopting can be found at austinanimalcenter.org.
