Dallas shelter at 140% capacity, extending adoption hours this Saturday

DALLAS – Dallas Animal Services is experiencing an unusual surge in capacity this time of year.

The shelter has 307 enclosures, which currently house 516 dogs.

You don’t have to be a mathematician to see the problem. The shelter is 140% full, with 50 to 100 new dogs being admitted every day.

It’s an even bigger problem now because part of the shelter will soon close as the floors are replaced.

“We have to repair the floors in many rooms. Because of this, we have to completely empty these rooms and keep them empty for several days due to the smoke associated with renovating the floors,” he said. Mary Martin, Assistant Director, DAS.

Martin said something had to give.

“We have to get them into homes or we won’t have to place them as humanely as we would like,” she said.

DAS will be holding an event called Moonlight Muttness to try to solve this problem. It will be open until late Saturday evening in hopes of giving people more opportunities to welcome a new family member into their homes before Thanksgiving.

“We decided to try to stay open later to accommodate people who work or who for whatever reason can’t come here during our normal business hours,” Martin said. “Our team will be here until 9 p.m. handling adoptions. The goal is to adopt. We would like to adopt 100 animals a day.”

Although shelter capacity has been declining over the past month, recent stormy weather has led to a sharp increase in the number of homeless animals.

Martin hopes the Moonlight Muttness event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, will help create an opportunity for people who don’t work the week of Thanksgiving.

“It’s impossible to walk through this building and not fall in love,” she said.

Those who aren’t sure if they’re ready to adopt can also spend the holidays fostering a dog.