Humane Society of Cambria County halts owner surrenders and walk-in visits

The Humane Society of Cambria County has taken in over one thousand animals in the past year alone, according to officials. They say 78 animals were recently accepted over just a two-day period in May.

“Every room in this building is full to the brim with animals that we can safely occupy. The floor space is covered, we have animals in every single roomMy office has multiple animals, our garage is now full of animals, they’re everywhere they can safely be contained,” says Humane Officer Kinlee Whited.

This led to a Monday Facebook post by officials explaining that the shelter can no longer accept animals surrendered by their owners for the time being. They’re also turning away visitors that don’t have an approved application.

Shelter Executive Director Kelli Ruiz says, “It just gives us a little more time to clean, sanitize, and take care of the animals. At this point we can’t have people going back and walking in the rooms when it’s just taking us an overwhelming amount of time to clean and take care of the animals.”

While officials say they’re looking to reopen the shelter to surrendered pets and walk-in visits eventually, they say they have to keep things closed off for now.

“Having the staff to be able to go out to these houses and get the animals safely to be able to transport them back here, and on top of that find the staffing and volunteer power to take care of that many animals has been very overwhelming, but we take it step by step, day by day,” says Whited.

In the meantime, officials say you can submit an application for a pet online before visiting, support fundraisers, volunteer, or donate supplies to support the shelter.

Ruiz says, “Stepping up to help us is going to be tremendous. Right now, we only have 14 paid staff members, so taking care of 148 animals a day on top of running the business is very overwhelming, so we really need the public to step up and help us.”

You can find a list of the adoptable pets on the Humane Society of Cambria County website.

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