America's Animal Shelters Are Broken

Rescue centers and humane groups are under pressure due to a huge drop in adoptions, especially of dogs

- MELISSA FLEUR AFSHAR

LAURA CLARK GETS UP AT THE crack of dawn every day, before putting on a pair of well-worn working boots and heading down to Colleton County Animal Shelter in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Clark and her team of 15 paid staff then take on the enormous task of cleaning up after, exercising, arranging veterinary care for, and feeding the more than 300 domestic animals ranging from cats to rabbits they've rescued from across their South Carolina county.

Surprisingly, there is one creature that by far outnumbers all the other animals in need residing at Clark's shelter: dogs.

"We only have 65 permanent dog kennels. Technically, we would keep five open at all times for new dogs, so our capacity is really 60. At the moment we have 195 dogs in our care, 141 of which are at the shelter full time," Clark, director of Colleton County Animal Shelter, told Newsweek. She added that dogs also take up half of the shelter staff's workload.

Indeed, Clark's shelter has been over capacity for two years now, she said, and her staff of 15, including four animal control officers, are now caring for 81 more dogs than they have the capacity for. Historically, the shelter has welcomed even numbers of cats and dogs, but dogs have largely exceeded the number of incoming cats since 2021.

While the shelter may simply look busy to outsiders, Clark said the root cause of the overload shelters are now facing is not intake numbers or return rates, which she said have remained in line with pre-pandemic levels, but rather a concerning drop in adoptions.

"When I first started working, the shelter took in over 3,000 pets per year, which has come down to around 2,000. The numbers have drastically reduced," Clark said.

She said adoptions, particularly of dogs, have plummeted nationwide for reasons ranging from sky-high living costs in the current economic environment to unethical breeding.