BARCS dealing with overcrowding as summer increases intakes

BALTIMORE — Walk through BARCS' kennels and it's easy to see the need.
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​It's filled with animals waiting on adoption or even a foster.​
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​"Truly, it's been over the past couple of years we've been over capacity again and again. We are an open admission shelter which means we have to take in any pet that comes through our doors," said Noelle Patterson, assistant director of communications.​
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​On Tuesday, 25 animals came in at the end of the day, putting the shelter in even more stress.
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​Currently they're 11 kennels short of what they need to operate.​
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​"Even with the animals that had left for adoption or foster at that point we were so over capacity we had to put out a plea, we needed to waive fees, we needed our community to step up because we had to get these animals out the door," said Patterson.​
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​Fosters are a major help for the shelter, giving temporary relief until they can get the dogs and cats adopted.
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​Natalie Ward showed up after seeing that BARCS was overcrowded. ​
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​"If you have the space and time and love, there's no reason not to. Dogs give you so much more than you give them in my opinion," said Ward.​
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​ The shelter sees an increase of intakes over the summer.
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​More animals are left outside and without microchips it can be tough to get them to their owner.​
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​"We always encourage people to microchip and tag and we do hold for a 72 hour stray period here and we do our best to reunite dogs with owners but that's not always the case," said Patterson.​
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​BARCS offers plenty of free or discounted services for people facing financial challenges to keeping their pets. ​