STOCKTON, Calif. — Local animal shelters are asking for help from the community as they struggle to keep up with the rising number of animal intakes each day.
The Stockton Animal Shelter is at “dangerously full” capacity, according to a late April Instagram post from Sacramento Shelter Pets Alive (SSPA). This means that the shelter has extremely close to zero or zero kennels left, Meghan Ramczyk, Animal Services Supervisor for the city of Stockton, told ABC10.
“In our computer system, there's a map of the shelter, and when we look at that we can see that every kennel is full, I mean, that is critically full and we need help,” Ramczyk said.
According to Ramczyk, in the last seven days, the shelter has taken in 132 dogs, or roughly 19 dogs a day.
The SSPA is a non-profit organization that supports shelter animals in the surrounding area. It is currently working with the Stockton Animal Shelter to help foster and house its overabundance of cats and dogs.
“SSPA is what we refer to as our behavior team. They are boots on the ground, working with the dogs day in, day out,” Ramczyk said. “So every day, the dogs are walked, get out of their kennels, get some training and get group playtime if that's what they want.”
Despite the help from local entities, the Stockton shelter has reached an unmanageable daily intake of dogs and is asking for help from the community.
“I know a lot of people can't adopt, and if they can't, fostering is awesome,” Ramczyk said. “Whether it's for a week or two, or until the animal gets adopted, foster homes are imperative to us being able to get dogs out.”
The Stockton shelter also has a “doggy day trip” program, that allows people to adopt dogs for the day to get them out of the shelter.
“If you're taking your family to the beach or going on a hike, it's awesome to just grab a dog,” Ramczyk said. “Taking a dog for a day might not seem like a lot, but not only does it give that dog a break from the shelter, it gives us a good picture of who that dog is outside of the shelter.”
This program helps not only the dogs in the shelter but the shelter itself as well, which is understaffed amid the overcapacity of pups.
However, Stockton is not the only animal shelter with consistently maxed out kennel space. According to Ramczyk, shelter capacity is a statewide issue.
The Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is one of many organizations in the region that has seen overflowing kennels.
“We see that more animals are going in than coming out right now because of poor adoption rates, especially for large dogs,” Kenn Altine, CEO of Sacramento SPCA said.
The organization is another one of a few local entities that helps manage kennel capacity in surrounding areas.
“We can manage our intake better so that we are taking the animals we know we can provide for and care for,” Altine said. “But we manage. We say 'yes,' but we also say 'when,' so that we can prevent ourselves from being overcrowded, so that when the public shelters go beyond their capacity, we're able to help by transferring animals in.”
Shelters like Stockton, Sacramento and many across the state are also preparing for the busiest day of the year.
“July 5 is the highest intake day for pretty much every shelter,” Ramczyk said.
This is because dogs typically run away from home on the Fourth of July in fear of the loud fireworks.
“We're dangerously full, but the fact is, we have to have open kennels,” Ramczyk said.
For more information on how to help the Stockton Animal Shelter visit their web page or contact SSPA for information on donating, volunteering and upcoming adoption events.
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