GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — More than 40 dogs at the Kent County Animal Shelter are ready for new homes.
"We have 104 dogs today, and over 40 of them are available for adoption," said Angela Hollinshead, director of the Kent County Animal Shelter. "But we have a lot of dogs that are on stray hold. We're in that period of waiting, hoping to find their family."
Hollinshead said they only have 79 full-sized kennels. With 104 dogs currently in their care, she said the county is currently on track with a nationwide trend.
"Unfortunately, we're really following national trends right now and seeing what most shelters are seeing, where our in intake is actually not decreasing, it's increasing," said Hollinshead.
Hollinshead said that the cause may be linked to a number of things.
"I think it's a combination of the housing crisis, affordable, pet-friendly housing is really difficult to find right now, and then also, the cost of veterinary care is really high," said Hollinshead. "So I think there's a lot of people that are struggling to pay for their family's care, and additionally that, you have the animal care expense."
Most of the animals they're getting are coming off of the streets.
"Hey just fill right back up with with the straight populations that are coming in from animal control, from law enforcement and from the community," said Hollinshead.
However, animal shelter staff are hopeful. They're working on adoption specials that will hopefully find more dogs new homes.
"Every Wednesday, we do an adoption special during the week, and it determined on Monday mornings what our adoption special for Wednesday will be, and we send that out on social media, let people know there's a particular subset of dogs in the building that are going to be at an adoption discount," said Hollinshead.