There’s no room at the Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County.
The no-kill shelter is at maximum capacity.
In AWL’s care this week are a total of 424 animals, including 189 cats in the shelter, 85 dogs in the shelter, 59 cats in foster care, seven dogs in foster care, four at PetSmart and 80 in trial adoptions, according to information provided by AWL Executive Director Tonya Blanchard Thursday.
The number of dogs may be the most the shelter has ever housed at one time. A litter of kittens is brought in almost every day, or someone is asking the AWL to take in a litter.
“We have the Fourth of July coming next week. We always make space for 10 extra kennels because we know that (some pets) will get lost and we’re here to get them back to their homes. But, we don’t have any space for them. Nothing,” Blanchard said.
Those numbers don’t even count the number of cats and dogs on the waiting list to come in. She said there’s about 150 cats, kittens and dogs on that list.

    The Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County has 189 cats in the shelter, with 59 in foster, four at PetSmart and others in trial adoption. Many of the felines are kittens, like these. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.
  

At the AWL Board of Directors meeting Thursday, Blanchard told them she had to do something and they agreed on a greatly reduced adoption fee for adult cats and dogs.
“It’s $10 for any adult, one year and older for dogs or cats, with an approved application. We can send them out with a $150 deposit if they’re not fixed; if they’re not fixed, it’ll be $160 and then they’ll get the $150 back when we get them fixed, just to make space and get them in a home versus sitting here until we can get them fixed,” she said.
Besides being neutered or spayed, all the cats and dogs are micro-chipped, current on rabies vaccines “and everything.”
“Just because they’re $10 doesn’t mean there’s less care. They’re still perfectly adoptable dogs. There’s nothing wrong with the dogs. There’s nothing wrong with the cats,” Blanchard said.
Asked why people are dropping so many furry friends off at the shelter, Blanchard could only offer a guess.
“I don’t have any idea. They’re moving to different homes, they can’t keep them. A child was born, etc.,” she said. “I know they’re not our dogs because all of ours are microchipped. And if they were our animals - because a lot of people think, ‘Well, you guys were open during Covid and you adopted a lot’ - that’s not the case. These dogs are dogs that are not microchipped so that tells me they’re not coming from any other shelter. All the shelters microchip their dogs.”
Brooke Lyon, adoption specialist and social media tech at the Animal Welfare League, said, “A lot of people are surrendering their animals because they rent from landlords and landlords these days - first of all, it’s hard to find anywhere here to live yourself with rent going up - but a lot of landlords and renters don’t allow animals. Or if they do, they have to be like small dogs or cats that are declawed. Some places don’t even take declawed cats, but it’s hard to find (veterinarians) that will be willing to declaw cats because it’s considered inhumane. So most of it is just people don’t have anywhere to live with their animals, so that’s why we’re seeing so many come in. Plus, I know a lot of people are struggling to find vets that are affordable. So it’s just those two things are the major reasons why we keep seeing people needing to surrender them to us. It’s just landlords and vet prices.”

    Scout was admitted to the Animal Welfare League on April 19. At 5 years old, his adoption fee is just $10 this weekend (plus the refundable spay/neuter fee). Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.
  

Blanchard said if the only reason a person is surrendering their cat or dog is because they can’t afford food right now because they’re out of a job, “we’re giving out some of our food to help people out so that people can keep it at their home versus bringing it into a shelter.”
The cost of living is the biggest issue, Lyon said.
Blanchard said they’ve never been at a point where they couldn’t take a single animal, but they can’t now.
No more animals will be taken right now unless it’s an absolute emergency. About six or seven wire crates were brought into the shelter for emergency use. Tuesday, animal control brought in six dogs from Syracuse and one from Milford during the high heat days.
“That’s a lot of our problem: It’s hot out, we can’t say no,” she said, adding that when it’s too hot outside for a stray or lost dog, or a kitten’s mother gets hit by a car, “how do you say no? There’s stories. It’s sad. It breaks all of our hearts.”
AWL serves the entire county, from Syracuse and Leesburg in the north, to Mentone and Silver Lake in the south and everywhere in between.
Companies like DePuy-Synthes and Zimmer Biomet have been supportive of the shelter, Blanchard said. Employees will come in and walk the dogs. Volunteers can help walk the dogs, which the dogs love. Behind the building is an area where the dogs can be walked, including paths and pools of water.
One room for senior dogs was converted to allow space for a cat mom and her kittens. The cat silo currently houses about nine kittens where normally there would be four or five. The rooms for cats that recently just had kittens are all full of momma cats and their little ones.
The shelter had three pregnant cats as of Thursday, according to staff member Sydney. The age of the kittens ranges from 2 weeks old to 2 to 4 months old. There’s some that are 9 weeks old and available for adoption this weekend.
“We’ve got a wide range right now,” she said.

    One cat had a litter of seven kittens in the last two weeks, while three other cats at the Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County are pregnant. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.
  

This weekend, the AWL is planning to be open Friday and Saturday for as long as people are coming in to adopt.
Normal hours are 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 Saturday.
“The staff has committed that as long as there are people in here and they want to get some animals, we’re going to be here. We need them to be in homes,” Blanchard said.
AWL will be at PetSmart 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday with some cats up for adoption as well. There will be special pricing there as well.
The Animal Welfare League, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is at 1048 S. CR 325E, Pierceton. Its phone number is 574-267-3008, and the website address can be found at www.awlwarsaw.com.
An Amazon wish list for the shelter can be found at www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/37W211HLLXIJR/ref=hz_ls_biz_ex