Young-Williams Animal Center is at critical capacity and operating on an emergency-only intake basis. We are asking the community to help us prioritize space for animals in urgent need by not bringing non-aggressive, uncontained strays to the shelter at this time.

We currently have 192 dogs and 277 cats housed at the shelter. Ideal capacity is a max of 94 dogs and 84 cats for optimal space and care. We have 75 dogs and 222 cats in foster care, in addition to the animals onsite. We also have 16 rabbits in our care. Included in these numbers are 132 animals on adoption hold with 58 at the shelter and the others on sleepovers for consideration of adoption or in foster care. These numbers can change daily, and we finalize adoptions and perform spay/neuter surgeries as quickly as possible.

We also are offering waived adoptions fees with a monetary donation of your choice until July 19 thanks to BISSELL Pet Foundation’s Summer National Empty The Shelters event.

If you have found someone’s pet, use the Petco Love Lost program by uploading a photo at lost.petcolove.org. This free, national database uses facial recognition to match pets with their families quickly and effectively. You also can use this tool if you have lost your pet.

Another helpful program is the Friendly Finders Program. If you’ve found a contained, non-aggressive stray, consider temporarily caring for the pet during its five-day stray hold. Information about the program is available at young-williams.org/lost-found.

Most lost pets are found within a one-mile radius of their home and/or owners and removing the animal from that vicinity makes it substantially less likely the pet will get home. Out of animals brought to shelters, less than 15% of dogs and less than 3% of cats nationally are reunited with their families.

By keeping pets in the neighborhoods where they’re found and using these tools, we can reunite more families and reserve shelter space for animals in crisis.

We can all do our part to support animals in need, whether in our shelter or in a home environment through our outreach services. If you are able to adopt, foster, volunteer or donate, please do so. Information about ways to help is at young-williams.org.