Connecticut animal shelters at capacity

NEW LONDON, Conn. (WTNH) — Animal shelters across the state are at or near capacity.

That’s the situation at New London’s animal shelter, which is shared by East Lyme and Waterford. It currently has 14 dogs, seven puppies, five cats, eight kittens, two rats and a rabbit.

“There’s a crisis across the country with the amount of dogs that are coming in to shelters, either abandoned or surrendered, because people can’t afford vet care anymore,” said Tonya Kloiber, an animal control officer.

Robert Yuchniuk, a Waterford-East Lyme animal control officer, said it’s more than $500 to spay or neuter a dog.

“It’s insane,” he said.

The animal control officers said they’re getting more requests for people needing to surrender animals, but they have to turn them away.

“It hurts, because some people really need help,” Yuchniuk said. “But, we have to keep some cages open in case we get a dog running down the street tomorrow.”

Local shelters are helping each other out. Some of the 37 dogs recently seized from a Wallingford home were sent to New London.

“Seven of the dogs we have now came from other shelters that were full to over-capacity,” Yuchniuk said. “So, we took some of them to help ease their burden.”

New London Animal Control put out a call Monday on its Facebook page for dog food. Within hours, donations were on the doorstep.

But, they can only take in so much at a time because of limited storage space and needing to use the food before the expiration date. So, they say gift cards are also a good way to help keep a fresh steady stock of food for the growing number of animals.

“Unfortunately the only solution is adoption,” Kloiber said. “But, adoptions are so low because the economy’s so terrible.”

One Persian cat at the shelter is a purebred who was left in a house abandoned along with trash.

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