Overstuffed county animal shelter asks public for help in taking pets
With nearly 360 dogs and cats, euthanizing may be the next option.
Even before Hurricane Florence forced the evacuation of pets from the Carolinas to local shelters, Palm Beach County has been in the midst of an animal crisis.
Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control announced last week it is in desperate need of help from the animal rescue community.
The county’s shelter at 7100 Belvedere Road in West Palm Beach is overcrowded, and adoptable animals are in danger of being euthanized because of a lack of space, director Dianne Sauve said Friday.
Sauve said the shelter is in the midst of a summer-long peak period of stray activity — particularly with cats — and it hit a boiling point early last week.
“We were really struggling with what to do,” she said.
Local animal rescue organizations have stepped in to help.
Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League has taken in 58 cats and 15 dogs during the past two days, bringing its total number of ani- mals taken in from the county’s shelter to 1,142 during the past 12 months.
The Humane Society of the Treasure Coast and the Brevard
Animals
the county a total of 24 to work with — would be placed at critical, high-volume intersections to keep traffic flow- ing in case of a blackout.
Ricks said his department works with the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office so that deputies guard the generators, allowing the engineering staff to concentrate on repairs following a storm.
Also boosting the state of readiness is a reserve of 600 traffic signal kits, which include all the components needed for a working traf- fic light.
One major concern for traffic officials are 48 inter- sections around Palm Beach Military Trail in suburban County that must have their West Palm Beach or Glades signals rebuilt following dam- Road and State Road 7 in age from Irma. The county is suburban Boca Raton — that requesting funds from FEMA can be dangerous when trafto begin the work. fic signals are functioning
None is considered critical, properly seemed particubut Al-Turk said the issue is larly unsafe after Irma. “a nightmare for us. In a big Within two days of Irma’s storm, they will be the first arrival, 90 percent of the ones to go down.” county’s traffic signals were
Officials remind drivers operating, Ricks said. that preparation won’t allow The expectation is that traffic signals to continue work over the past year will operating if a hurricane translate into a quicker recovknocks out electrical power. ery.
A day after Irma hit, it was “There is nothing we can a challenge to drive anydo to prevent (storm damage) where in the county with- from happening, so what we out running into a string of do is be proactive,” Al-Turk lights gone dark by black- said. outs, not damage.
Intersections — like those at Forest Hill Boulevard and