Madisonville animal shelter faces overcrowding ahead of winter
MADISONVILLE, Texas (KBTX) – An animal shelter in Madisonville says they’re over capacity by nearly double, which poses a problem as temperatures start to drop.
The shelter has no physical address, making it difficult to find. They currently have 20 kennels, and around 40 dogs in their care.
“Most of them have been here for months, if not a year now, and with no interest,” shelter employee Kaylie Smith said.
Madisonville animal shelter faces overcrowding ahead of winter
According to her, the shelter is ‘maxed out,’ both physically and financially. Unless it’s a dire situation, Smith said they cannot take any more animals.
“There’s lots of dumping and wild dogs that just have puppies over and over,” she said.
The shelter isn’t just overcrowded, Smith said. They’re lacking critical resources to support all of the animals.
“We don’t even have a volunteer. So these dogs, they don’t get walked every day like a lot of shelter dogs. They sit in their pen unless they’re going to the vet,” she said.
Madisonville animal shelter faces overcrowding ahead of winter
According to Smith, the shelter operates entirely off of donations, which have become scarce.
“All of our dog food is off donation. So we depend a lot on donations, but people can only do so much, especially with inflation,” she said.
And as the winter months approach, so does another set of problems for the shelter.
“Our shelter is fully outdoors,” Smith said, “The younger ones – they can’t handle this kind of weather. And then even the older ones, they can’t handle this kind of weather with the overcrowding.”
The shelter uses doghouses, hay, and heat lamps to keep the dogs warm, but Smith says they’re still worried it won’t be enough.
Madisonville animal shelter faces overcrowding ahead of winter
“Whenever we have three to four dogs in a kennel, that makes it very hard to make sure that they all have everything they need to be able to stay warm this winter,” Smith said.
The shelter has an Amazon wishlist of donations they’re most in need of, but they also say fostering and adopting dogs will make the most difference.
“I know a lot of people aren’t aware of the shelter we have here,” Smith said.
