Forsyth County Animal Shelter nears capacity after 3 hoarding cases

FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — The number of cats and dogs in the Forsyth County Animal Shelter is up after taking in animals from three recent hoarder cases.

The shelter is almost at capacity and was forced to close its doors twice last week due to the uptick in animals coming in. The shelter took in 73 animals from three hoarding cases.

Two were discovered by the sheriff’s office as cat hoarding cases. The other was a voluntary surrender of dozens of dogs. The shelter’s main focus now is getting them adopted.

“Basically, every nook and cranny was taken up in this past week,” Forsyth County Animal Services Director Kirsten Briggs said.

One case had 40 dogs and six kittens, another case had 11 cats and the third separate case had 16 cats.

The numbers shocked Briggs.

“So far, we’ve had about five hoarding cases since we took over operations of the shelter a year and a half ago now,” Briggs said.

It was a total of 73 animals brought to the shelter in just two days.

The shelter’s capacity is 200.

“We were up to about 170 last week for a few days, So that was really hard. It’s a lot of the staff. It’s a lot on our medical team,” Briggs said.

Many of the animals are healthy, clean and ready to be adopted into a loving home. Some are still dealing with the impact of living among dangerous clutter.

“Some of them are just behaviorally shut down … because they’ve had very limited human interaction. The cats from the other case, unfortunately, most of them had to be humanely euthanized because the ammonia levels in the house were so high. They had basically ammonia burns in their lungs,” Briggs said.

Some local rescues have stepped up to care for some of the animals. Briggs is grateful for their help and said there is a way for pet owners to also help.

It all starts with the commitment to being a responsible owner and having your pet spayed or neutered.

“It’s a mental illness issue. They feel that they are providing the best care, and they are collecting these animals because they care for them, and they love them,” Briggs said.

Many of the animals in these hoarding cases are waiting for adoption at the FCAS.

The shelter is also sending people who adopt these pets home with a paper with tips on how to ease them into their home after they’ve lived in a hoarding environment.

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