Shelters deluged with dogs, cats after hurricane
TAVARES — Whitney Boylston sprayed a deodorizer to get rid of the smell coming from the seven puppies and their mother, a pit bull mix named Aubrey, taking refuge in her office.
“You come to work knowing that you’re busting at the seams, and then you have seven more,” said Boylston, the Lake County Animal Shelter director.
Born three days earlier, the puppies were being taken to a rescue group in Levy County within the hour. As Hurricane Irma left a wake of debris and flooding, shelters throughout the state have been deluged with dogs and cats. Some may have wandered away after fences blew down, while others were dropped off by owners who couldn’t take care of them because of the stress caused by Irma damage, she said.
To deal with the influx, shelters have had to get creative by shuffling around animals to make room for more and using Facebook to appeal for help in adopting animals.
The Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando has taken in nearly 100 animals from Orange County and Jacksonville among others be-
cause “they were at capacity and needed help,” said Stephen O’Neal, a Pet Alliance spokesman.
The Orange County Animal Shelter reported 62 extra dogs and cats transferred to the shelter in the days after Irma and have kept volume the same by transferring the pets.
Lake, which doesn’t euthanize for space, at one point had 225 dogs at a shelter that can only hold 150.
On a recent weekday, the office was technically closed, but volunteers and customers still streamed in and out handling adoptions.
“As soon we opened for business, it got crazy,” Boylston said.
Counties that saw more hurricane damage or have shelters that don’t euthanize for space were particularly hard-hit. Lake County switched to a “no-kill” shelter in January, one of few in the state that doesn’t euthanize animals unless they’re ill or have behavioral problems. People may drop off their pets in other shelters, but it doesn’t happen often.
To adopt out more pets than it takes in, the Lake shelter relies on volunteer networks and marketing techniques, such as Boylston appealing to people to take a dog or cat during the storm to keep them safe.
“Little did they know that our ulterior motive there was that they would fall in love,” resulting in several adoptions, she said.
Looking to ease the strain, part-time “pet detective” Debbie Shank of Mount Dora tries to reconnect strays with their owners on the internet.
“I take the photo, post it on a lost-and-found page, and then cross-post it,” she said. “I look at 100 dogs a day.”
Shelters outside of Florida have also reached out to help.
The Atlanta Humane Society picked up a dozen dogs on a recent weekday at the Lake shelter. Shelters in the Northeast have taken in Florida dogs and cats to alleviate strain at other shelters.
In Central Florida, some counties’ major problem wasn’t with domestic animals but rather wild ones.
“It wasn’t that bad at all — we get more wildlife,” said Carole Coleman, an administrator at Seminole County Animal Services.
A day after Irma, for example, the Back To Nature Wildlife Refuge in Lake Nona, received a 3-week-old baby squirrel.
“We picked up a ton of baby squirrels,” Coleman said.