KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City animal shelter is sounding the alarm as the cold weather continues to flood its four walls with four-legged friends.
Kansas City Pet Project said staff took in 40 dogs on Wednesday. The shelter is now at capacity. They said if some dogs don’t find new homes, the KC Pet Project may be forced to euthanize them.
Fugate said the shelter is in crisis mode because of the high number of calls and pets coming in — combined with low adoptions because of the cold temperatures.
“We’re at full capacity. We have a lot of dogs that are potentially at risk of euthanasia just because we’re so full. That’s why we’re begging our community to help us,” Fugate said.
“The last thing we want to do is to euthanize for space, but as the shelter of the city we must have an open kennel for all these dogs to enter.”
While 3-month-old Freckles is just a puppy, other dogs have been at the shelter for more than 30 days.
Fugate said the extreme winter weather causes a high intake of domestic animals. Now, every kennel is full.
“Our phones have been ringing with people who are concerned about these animals being out and about,” Fugate said.
“These temperatures are very, very dangerous. They can be very, very dangerous for animals. If they don’t have the proper shelter to get in and out of those elements, animals can die in these extreme temperatures.”
The shelter receives hundreds of calls every day about dogs being neglected and left outside in the freezing cold.
“In the first 18 days of January, we saw a 173% increase in general neglect calls versus the entire month of December,” Fugate said.
Fugate said they had 89 cases in December and have worked 250 cases so far this year.
In the past two weeks, Fugate said officers have served four warrants with 10 animals, protecting them from the cold.
“We anticipate the calls to continue to continue, especially with this cold weather that we’re going to see this weekend, potential snow,” Fugate said. “Every time that happens, it grows. So if you can, bring your pets.
KC Pet Project has a few specials on pets. If you want to adopt a furry friend, visit their website here.
