Local animal shelter filling up after February storm

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - There are close to 200 animals waiting to find homes at the Humane Society of Central Texas, and the shelter said a lot of those animals have been coming in since the winter storm.

Paula Rivadeneira, executive director of the humane society, said she isn’t sure if the animals are coming in because of effects from the storm. Rivadeneira said there was a bit of a lull in animals coming in after the storm, but intakes have picked back up again recently, with anywhere from 15 to 30 animals coming in every day.

That is a lot of animals for the shelter, which only has 210 kennels. Many of the animals coming in are large dogs, so there is not an adoption fee for those large dogs right now.

While the goal is to get animals into permanent homes, Rivadeneira said fostering animals is just as important, and often helps them learn more about those pets.

“Dogs don’t behave like they normally do in a home when they’re here at the shelter,” Rivadeneira said. “We know they have fear, anxiety, frustration, and you know we do our best to take care of them, they get to go to playgroup, but it’s just not the same as being in a home, so our foster homes are really important to us.”

Rivadeneira said fostering dogs also helps prevent the shelter from becoming too full. Right now, there are 45 pets being fostered. Without foster families, the shelter would be full.

Rivadeneira said it’s like a cycle at the shelter--just as dogs are being adopted, even more dogs are brought in. If too many dogs are brought in without others being adopted, that’s when the shelter has to make some decisions about putting animals down.

Rivadeneira said they hold adoption events, post on Facebook and take advantage of holidays for adoption specials, but they’re still looking for other ways to reach the community.

“I think it’s really just about motivating the community, reaching out to parts of our community that maybe aren’t visiting us right now, and letting them know we are here and that they can come and adopt an animal, and that adopting an animals saves the life instead of buying one from someone’s yard.”

There are several adoption events happening this weekend. On March 26, the shelter will be at Greg May Honda in Waco from 3 until 5 in the afternoon. On Saturday, the shelter will be at Texell on Hewitt Drive from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. There will also be pets ready for adoption at Eddy Feed and Seed from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.

There is more information on the humane society Facebook page.

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