Shelter needs around 100 animals adopted, fostered to avoid euthanasia

The Kentucky River Regional Animal Shelter is at double it's capacity and will have to put dogs down if they aren't adopted out

HAZARD, Ky. (WTVQ) – An animal shelter in eastern Kentucky is asking the community for help, saying it’ll be forced to euthanize pets within the next week if its overflow of animals isn’t drastically reduced.

In Hazard, around 20 people gathered Tuesday night at the Kentucky River Regional Animal Shelter (KRRAS) to pray for help in providing the shelter with rescues, fosters and adoptions. The shelter says it’s at nearly double its regular capacity of 175 for dogs, housing nearly 300 at the moment. The shelter has to stack travel crates and put heating lamps in outdoor kennels to house all of the animals it has.

KRRAS says unless 75-100 dogs are adopted or fostered out, it will have to start euthanizing in the next week. The shelter says if enough animals aren’t adopted or fostered out, it’ll have to start putting down the ones that have been there the longest, big dogs and breeds considered “aggressive”.

“We know that it’s going to take a miracle. We know that it’s beyond what we can do and our rescue partners are amazing, however, they can only take what they can take,” says Tammy Noble, board president of KRRAS.

The severe overcrowding at KRRAS leaves it with an impossible decision if it doesn’t receive the help from the community it so desperately needs, euthanizing healthy animals due to lack of space.

“I have not seen it this bad since 2011-2012,” says Noble. “Prior, we were euthanizing about 6,000 animals a year and we were at a 98% euthanizing rate, and year before last, we were at less than 3% euthanize rate so God’s brought us a long way.”

This overcrowding is due to many factors, such as inflation bringing the cost of caring for pets up and people returning to the office post-pandemic, but the shelter says most of all, not spaying or neutering pets.

“If people would spay and neuter their pets, it would decrease that population tremendously,” says Noble. “We can’t stress that enough, that’s why we developed our low-cost program to make it more affordable.”

KRRAS says it brings in between 5,500 and 6,500 animals per year. Tuesday alone, 25 more animals were dropped off at the already overwhelmed shelter.

“This time of the year usually too, you see a drop in population right before puppy and kitten season hits. This year, we’ve not seen a break all year long,” says Noble. “It has been absolutely devastating.”

More information on how to adopt or support KRRAS can be found on its website HERE or on its Facebook page linked HERE.