BALTIMORE — Unwanted animals filling nearly every cage are hoping to become someone’s forever pets, but both time and space are running out for them at the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.
“We’re just not seeing as many people come down and adopt, and it has left us in the middle of winter being out of space, which is not common for our shelter,” said BARCS Community Engagement Director Bailey Deacon. “We typically see out of space in the summertime when we’re taking in more strays and puppies and kittens.”
So far, in January alone, the shelter has already taken in 200 dogs, but it only has 120 cages to house them.
In a bid to free up space, the shelter is waiving the adoption fees for both dogs and cats through Sunday.
While some suggest the economy is a factor, it appears demand has fallen dramatically since the nation was in the throes of the pandemic.
“What we’re seeing here is a lot of people saying, ‘Well, I adopted during the pandemic’, and the pandemic was great for that,” said Deacon. “So many animals got adopted. We couldn’t keep animals in our shelter. It was amazing.”
Now, the open-admission shelter must move out an animal for each one it takes in or risk the prospect of having to put some down if the community doesn’t take them in.
“We don’t want to have to make those decisions and we haven’t had to in years so I’m hoping today is going to be a really, really, really busy, crazy day here in our lobby with lives being saved,” added Deacon.
The shelter on Giles Road is open weekdays from 2pm to 6pm and on weekends from 11am to 4pm.
