North Texans with room in their hearts and their homes are urgently needed to help alleviate overcrowding in the dog section of the Dallas Animal Shelter.
The shelter is currently at 140% capacity, housing 516 dogs in 307 kennels. As many as 50 to 100 new arrivals are left at the shelter every day. This year, the shelter has seen 1,200 more owner-surrenders and 3,000 more strays brought in than during the last fiscal year, according to Mary Martin, the assistant director at the Dallas Animal Shelter.
Adding to the limited space situation, multiple rooms at the shelter will be out of use for several days while the floors are being repaired and resurfaced.
“We have to get [the dogs] into homes, or we end up housing them in a way that is not as humane as we would like,” Martin said, per Fox 4 KDFW.
On Saturday, the shelter is hosting a “Moonlight Muttness” event, keeping the shelter open for extended hours to accommodate potential adopters who work during the day or cannot visit the shelter during regular business hours for other reasons. Shelter employees hope the upcoming holiday week will provide a good opportunity for families to get acquainted with a new furry friend from the shelter.
“Our team will be here until 9 o’clock at night processing adoptions. The goal is to adopt. We’d love to adopt 100 animals in the day,” Martin told Fox 4.
The event, which begins at 11 a.m. on November 23, will take place at the shelter located at 1818 N. Westmoreland Rd, and all dog or cat adoptions processed that day will be free.
For those who aren’t ready to adopt just yet but would like to help out, temporary fostering or foster-to-adopt are other available options.
However, Martin cautioned visitors to the shelter: ” You cannot walk through this building and not fall in love.”