FORT WORTH, Texas — The City of Fort Worth opened the North Animal Campus, its fourth shelter, about a month ago. Supervisor Anastasia Ramsey said it's already nearly full.
"We are over capacity, approximately 40% over capacity," Ramsey said. "We have about 1,000 animals in our care across our four locations.”
Ramsey said, typically, the shelter would have an entire pod open to house strays, which amounts to about 32 kennels. Right now, her center only has three available.
During the pandemic, the center saw a dip in intake. Now that people are starting to go back to work and school, Ramsey said they're seeing that trend reverse.
“They were home all of last year," Ramsey said. "Everyone’s going back to work now. Now we’re seeing, 'Oh, I just don’t have time for this dog.' Or they just were financially impacted, and they really don’t have the money to care for the dogs properly anymore.”
The City has been waiving adoptions fees for the past year. They center also covers flea and tick prevention, heartworm medication and vaccinations. Many of the animals are spayed and neutered.
Ramsey said they're hoping to find homes for the many of the pets before summer.
“We are seeing an influx of surrenders and summertime always brings even more," said Ramsey.
For families who want to help but are not ready to adopt, fostering is an options that makes a difference.
“Fostering can be as short as overnight," Ramsey said. "It can be as short as taking the dogs out for a day. We had a foster take a dog home last Sunday. She brought her back up today with an adopter in her neighborhood.”
The priority, right now, is finding homes to adopt and foster medium to large dogs as well as kittens.