PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The city’s animal care and control provider is forced to euthanize dogs because there is no room at the shelter to care for them. ACCT Philly is in desperate need of adopters and foster households, and there’s an incentive for animal rescue organizations in the region to take larger dogs.
ACCT Philly has more than 100 dogs available for adoption in the kennel space, and overflow animals are being kept in crates in staffers’ offices.
Lack of space has forced the organization to put time stamps on dogs and to euthanize them when their time runs out — not because they have behavioral problems, but simply because there is no room.
“We start with the dogs that have been with us the longest. So, every day, a couple of dogs are time stamped for five days. A dog timed stamped [on Monday] … goes on the website and everywhere saying: If this dog doesn’t find placement by Saturday, the dog will be euthanized. And it goes into detail about the dog and why they are here and everything we know about them,” said Sarah Barnett, executive director.
“It’s not something we like to do. We also find that the majority of those dogs do find placement because of their urgency.”
Bernie Stromberg of Havertown rescued a young German shepherd, nicknamed Joker, a couple of weeks ago. Stromberg brought him back to ACCT on Monday for a neutering appointment.
“He was on the time stamp list, and we know it’s difficult to shelter out or foster or even adopt some of the larger breeds,” said Stromberg. “We saw the pictures. We came up, brought him home, and he has adapted well.”
And there is a name change in his future.
“I really don’t know what to say about him other than I think he’s happy, so we are going to call him Happy.”
To help clear the shelter and save lives, ACCT Philly has lowered adoption fees for harder-to-place dogs weighing 40 pounds or more. Fostering is another way to free up space.
And the agency is incentivizing animal rescue organizations to pull dogs from the ACCT Philly facility, too. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, if a rescue organization takes a dog weighing 40 pounds or more, the organization will receive $750 and an additional $500 for two or more.
