KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KC Pet Project’s capacity for dogs is over its limit. The local animal shelter is using pop-up kennels because space is so limited.
“I mean we’re just like finding every available space that we can for all of these dogs, and today we’ll probably get at least 30-40 new ones,” spokeswoman Tori Fugate said.
The shelter was built to hold 140 dogs, but right now they have nearly 300 in the building. In 2022, they took in more than 7,600 dogs, which is 1,000 more than they did in 2021.
“So the trends that we’re seeing of all of these dogs coming in is not slowing down. It doesn’t look to be slowing down any day soon,” Fugate said.
Fugate said they’re seeing an increase in strays and are working to reunite dogs as fast as they can.
“If we take in 30-40 new pets a day and most of those are strays, those are kennels that are gonna be full for almost a week,” Fugate said.
Fugate also said caring for nearly 300 dogs every day is stressful on staff and volunteers and is encouraging the community to adopt or foster to help decrease the number of dogs in the shelter.
“We do enrichment for our dogs every day, so handing out treats and Kongs and Nylabones. I mean, it’s a huge operation just to provide one day of care, so multiply that by 365,” Fugate said.
