A Charlotte animal shelter needs your help

“This situation has quickly become urgent,” Dr. Josh Fisher, AC&C’s director, said in a media release last Thursday.

• Many folks saw the announcement and came in to foster or adopt, AC&C spokesperson Melissa Knicely tells Axios. But they still have many dogs looking for homes.

What’s happening: The summer months always are busy in terms of dog intake for the local AC&C, and this summer was no different. The big increase they’re seeing now is in stray dogs, Knicely says.

There could be a few reasons for this, she adds.

• Many of the employees at low-cost spay/neuter clinics were not considered essential workers. Those clinics were closed for a bit, leaving more animals unsterilized, which could have led to more litters being born, Knicely says.
• There’s also the fact that more people are moving to Charlotte, meaning the pet population grows with the human population, she adds. There are therefore more animals living in our community that get can away from their owners.

Zoom out: Locally and nationally, pet adoptions soared during the pandemic. In markets like Denver, shelters started experiencing overcrowding as people returned their new but apparently unwanted pets. That doesn’t seem to be what’s going on in Charlotte.

“As far as surge because of adoptions, no we don’t see any correlation that we can prove,” Knicely says.

Flashback: Last year, AC&C achieved “no kill” status for the first time by getting 90% of its animals adopted.

All photos here are of dogs up for adoption through AC&C. Photos are courtesy of AC&C.