“Fosters save lives,” Amy Bohardt, director of the Animal Resource Center, told this newspaper earlier this month. “It makes such a difference for these dogs.”
Animal advocates said dog abandonment is happening every day in the Dayton region even though it is against the law and harmful to the dogs that are being dumped.
Unfortunately, community members who find dumped and stray dogs regularly encounter wait lists when they reach out to shelters or animal rescue organizations looking for a place to take the animals, said Brian Weltge, president and CEO of the Humane Society of Greater Dayton.
Caring community members who see dogs running free and who want to help may be reluctant to try to corral the animals because they fear they won’t be able to find them a home or a place at a shelter or foster home, Weltge said.
“When no agency is able to take the dogs that people are finding, then people get stuck,” he said. “When there’s no outlet for them, once they find that dog or help that dog, I feel like we’re training them to turn a blind eye. And that’s not what we want in the community.”
If someone finds a dog running loose, the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center should be one of the first places they contact, say multiple animal advocacy groups.
The county dog warden falls under the Animal Resource Center, and dog wardens are responsible for seizing and impounding dogs that are found running at large.
But the Animal Resource Center is at capacity, like many shelters across the country, said Deb Decker, director of communications with Montgomery County.
The center has been full every day in 2023, she said.
Still, animal control officers continue to patrol and respond to high-priority calls, including those about clearly abused, neglected, sick or injured dogs, she said.
Officers also are taking action when dogs are an imminent threat to public safety or they may have been involved in dog fighting, animal hoarding or are subject to court-ordered impoundment, she said.
Dogs are coming in and out of the shelter every day, Decker said, and every adoption leaves a vacancy that is quickly filled with a new stray. But Decker said overpopulating the shelter would put staff and animals at risk.
No room
Kirsten Knight, executive director of Adopt A Pit Rescue, said she thinks the Animal Resource Center is turning away dogs that it may have accepted in the past — like dogs that owners want to surrender and stray dogs that don’t meet certain conditions.
She said this is a concern because other large shelters in the county run by SICSA and the Humane Society are full.
“Nothing is going to change until ARC policies change,” Knight said.
Decker, the county spokesperson, said the Animal Resource Center only accepts owner surrenders for euthanasia when the dog is a safety risk or is suffering from health or medical issues.
Decker said the center is doing its part to address community dog issues.
Animal advocates say fewer pets would be abandoned if there were more places that would take them in.
They say this can be accomplished by getting more people to become foster caretakers, either through the Animal Resource Center, SICSA, the Humane Society and other local adoption and animal welfare groups.
Pet fostering reduces overcrowding at animal shelters and frees up space for other strays. Foster home environments also tend to be less stressful on the animals.
People who find dogs in Montgomery County are encouraged to visit www.mcanimals.org to register the animals with the Animal Resource Center and Petco Love Lost.
Officials also recommend community members share information about animals they find on social media.
There are multiple online groups and social media pages for strays or missing animals, like Dayton, Ohio, and Surrounding Area Lost and Found Pets on Facebook.
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