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Facing closure: Sugar Land Animal Shelter exceeds capacity
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What's happening
Due to shelter overcrowding, trapping oper- ations for stray animals have been suspended, and animal services officers will only respond to calls involving sick or injured animals in the field, according to the release. Brown said the shelter’s situation has improved since early August, but the situation is being closely monitored. Sugar Land is not the only city facing animal shelter overcrowding, Brown said; a “very con- cerning trend” of overwhelmed animal shelters started after months of quarantine caused by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she said. “A lot of people adopted animals when they were at home all the time; they wanted a compan- ion,” she said. “Now they’ve gone back to work, or their living situation has changed because of the inflationary pressures.” The ongoing heat wave has drawn attention to the plight of stray and street animals, prompting more individuals to become concerned for their well-being, said Macey Cohn Sanchez, Houston Humane Society assistant marketing manager. An Aug. 18 release from HHS stated the Houston-based shelter is over capacity, holding 500 animals at the time of the release. Sanchez said from Aug. 1-22 the HHS shelter took in 304 animals, most of the intakes being: • 114 owner surrenders • 88 strays • 46 cruelty victims “The past 2 1/2 years have been a whole different ball game for animal shelters in Texas,” Sanchez said.
If the shelter continues to operate in its critical state of overcrowding, the city could be forced to close it to new animals, according to an Aug. 9 city news release. The shelter normally takes in dozens of animals monthly, taking in 98 just in July. Brown said shelter sta constantly asks for fosters and adoptions on social media. She said even temporarily fostering an animal can allow it to become more socialized and adoptable while providing relief to the shelter. “I wish we had as many homes as we had dogs available, but unfortunately, it’s not always the situation,” Brown said. “It’s really heartbreaking to see the situation that we’re in now.”
Shelter and city o cials are calling for foster care support and are preparing adoption events to alleviate the facility and continue operations. The shelter has grappled with capacity challenges this year, being several dogs and cats over its capacity in several of its monthly reports. • The shelter was designed to house 31 dogs and 56 cats. • As of Aug. 15, the shelter was holding 48 dogs and 107 cats. “We have a couple of kennels that do have two dogs in them,” Brown said. “Basically anywhere we could put a [kennel], we have put one. … They’re lining the halls.” The shelter is utilizing every available space, including mobile enclosures placed in rooms, hallways and the shelter’s lobby.
Dogs
Cats
Capacity
150 125 75 100
25 50
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SOURCE: CITY OF SUGAR LAND/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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