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Charlotte Dog Shelter At Capacity, Pleads For Help From Community

Some of the very good dogs who are currently available for adoption at Charlotte's Animal Care & Control.
Animal Care & Control
Some of the very good dogs who are currently available for adoption at Charlotte's Animal Care & Control.

A year after the pandemic puppy boom, Charlotte's animal shelter is full and Animal Care & Control is asking the community to help alleviate the problem by fostering, adopting or taking dogs home for a "staycation."

"The situation has quickly become urgent," said Josh Fisher, director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Animal Care & Control Division, in a news release Thursday.

A graph shows how many dogs in Charlotte's Animal Care & Control were surrendered by owners, compared to the number of adoptions, in the last three years.
Courtesy Animal Care & Control
A graph shows how many dogs in Charlotte's Animal Care & Control were surrendered by owners, compared to the number of adoptions, in the last three years.

Typically, shelters are more crowded in summer months, Fisher added. But Thursday, AC&C reached a point where all its dog kennels were full.

Most of the dogs are strays, rather than owner surrender, spokesperson Melissa Knicely said. Since July 1, 53% of animals coming into the shelter are stray dogs.

Additionally, there are more kittens than a year ago, Knicely said.

The Charlotte community can help by 1. adopting a dog, 2. fostering a dog to free up space in the shelter for animals who need special care or management, or 3. providing a "staycation" for a dog by bringing a dog home for up to five days to give it a break from the shelter environment.

More information can be found here.

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Jodie Valade has been a Digital News and Engagement Editor for WFAE since 2019. Since moving to Charlotte in 2015, she has worked as a digital content producer for NASCAR.com and a freelance writer for publications ranging from Charlotte magazine to The Athletic to The Washington Post and New York Times. Before that, Jodie was an award-winning sports features and enterprise reporter at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. She also worked at The Dallas Morning News covering the Dallas Mavericks — where she became Mark Cuban's lifelong email pen pal — and at The Kansas City Star. She has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Master of Education from John Carroll University. She is originally from Rochester Hills, Michigan.