‘I want to do more’: Douglas Co. Animal Shelter out of space, struggles to find solutions

TUSCOLA, Ill. (WCIA) — Douglas County Animal Control is currently shut down and at capacity, they can’t take in any pets. But, that’s only the beginning of the problem. 11 of the dogs can’t be adopted because of an ongoing court case.

For Spencer Hall, the shelter’s administrator, it’s like treading water and pushing forward one day at a time. Right now, everything is at a dead end until long-term solutions can go into effect. She feels the best option is to move into a new bigger building. The current shelter only has five indoor kennels.

Animal Control staff is used to juggling a handful of struggles, but nothing like what they’re facing now.

“We had to do a seizure of 11 dogs and we are not able to find homes or foster homes or anything until that court case is closed,” Hall said.

She and her team rescued them in August and have been struggling for space since. They can’t all fit outside, so they had to resort to building outdoor dog houses with the help of a volunteer.

The courts may not reach a decision until the wintertime, and that will present a problem if the dogs can’t move indoors until then.

But, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Now, the shelter isn’t able to help the community to its fullest extent.

“When a stray is out there and they need to find an owner or they need it picked up, we’re not able to go out,” Hall explained. “We’re telling them to please just take a picture, send it to us, we’ll post it on Facebook.”

It’s an emotional challenge to work through for the staff, especially as they struggle to keep up with day-to-day tasks on their to-do lists.

“I feel awful for it but there’s nothing we can literally do we don’t have any room here,” Hall said. “I need to go on more neglect cases, I need to do more, but there’s nothing I can do.”

She said the biggest problem is working to move into a larger facility, but Hall is committed to finding a light at the end of the tunnel for the animals.

“I’m very passionate about what I do. I want to do more, but I’m not able to do what I need to do right now,” Hall said.

To her, the scariest part of everything is the chance the 11 dogs may go back to their owner if the courts side with them. If the pets don’t go back to the owner, the shelter can put them all up for adoption.

The next Douglas County Board meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 8, and Hall encourages the community to show up and support.

If you want to help the shelter, connect with them on Facebook . They have lots of dog and cat food donations already but are always thankful for monetary donations and volunteers to socialize the pets.

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