Can the West Texas community clean up the Levelland Animal Sanctuary by the end of the day on Thursday?
LEVELLAND, Texas — The Levelland Animal Shelter is moments away from capacity, which means it will begin euthanizing more dogs, possibly as early as tomorrow, an employee told KLBK News on Wednesday.
Despite diligent efforts on social media, the shelter euthanized 20 healthy dogs in the past month, which exceeded the total number of euthanasia procedures throughout last year, the officer said. of animal control John Corder, adding that the number was only increasing.
“We’re picking up at least four or five times more dogs than last year at this point. We just don’t have the space right now,” Corder said. He went on to say that the pest problem had gotten worse over the years.
The shelter is required to pick up all stray animals.
“We have to do our job. There cannot be dogs loose in the streets. [They] could bite people. They spread diseases, [get] hit by cars, cause accidents. It’s terrible,” Corder said.
Although the shelter welcomes cats and kittens, it is generally not difficult to place them.
However, finding homes for the dogs is difficult, due to the small size of the Levelland Animal Sanctuary and the number of stray dogs in the area. There is only room for 16 puppies.
“Levelland is a nice little town. There are thousands and thousands of dogs here. There are more dogs than people,” Corder said.
And with each call comes at least one more wanderer, which means the shelter has to make room.
The only option he has, if no one wants to adopt the animal, is to euthanize it.
“We’re not doing so well with euthanasia so far this year. There were several reasons for this… I’m sure people didn’t get their animals treated. They raise puppies. I guess everyone intends to sell puppies and realizes they can’t do it. Nobody will buy them,” Corder said.
Most dogs stay no longer than two weeks before being euthanized, the shelter said. Some dogs last less than a week before being euthanized because the dog cycle is so frantic.
The first to come are the first to go, alive or not, and new dogs are arriving every day. So there is little time left for many of these dogs to find their forever homes.
At least four dogs are at risk of euthanasia and could be put down by the end of Thursday if they are not adopted. It could be earlier or later than four, since the shelter was one dog away from reaching capacity Wednesday afternoon.
Three of these dogs at immediate risk are pit-bull-mix puppies.
“Pit bulls are the most difficult to adopt. They just have a bad reputation. I have dealt with pit bulls all my life. These are the sweetest things. I’m here to tell you now that they’re no more aggressive than any other dog,” Corder said.
The shelter said the core of the problem stems from people not neutering and neutering their pets.
Having animals repaired can help reduce the wandering population and reduce euthanasia procedures.
Those who cannot foster or adopt could help by sharing the shelter’s Facebook posts with others who may be interested.