The Humane Society of Central Texas’ Facebook restriction worsens its overcapacity issue and drops adoption rate

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The Humane Society of Central Texas is having trouble getting the word out that their dog intake is over compacity.

Although Facebook is their largest platform to reach the community, its restrictions of the animals shelter’s account caused the facility to become unable to post pictures and videos urging the community to adopt animals.

Workers are worried because they have 210 dogs on campus right now, which is 40 dogs over the limit.

Without the animal shelter being able to post on Facebook, adoptions have dropped and euthanizing the dogs is unfortunately their next option.

Seeing these furry friends on the Humane Society of Central Texas’ Facebook page is usually the quickest way for these animals to find a forever home.

Director of operations, Sarah Fanning, said that hasn’t been the case recently.

“We frequently have people coming in and saying, ‘I saw this dog on Facebook, I want to adopt it.’ Then they’ll go home with it,” said Fanning.

Since last Thursday, Facebook has restricted the Humane Society’s page from posting pictures and videos on the site.

Fanning said Facebook is the organization’s largest platform and 80% of their adoptions come from there.

She said other local and national shelters experienced the same issue, but it was resolved within a few days.

“It has been five days for us. We don’t know what’s going on or when it’s going to clear up. Facebook hasn’t given us any inkling of what went wrong or what we did wrong, so it’s impossible to know how to fix it,” said Fanning.

When Fanning tries to post a picture, an alert reads, “For security reasons, your account has limited access to the site for a few days.”

Fanning has contacted Facebook five different times and heard nothing back.

“It makes me worried, mostly for our dogs because they are at risk right now. We have so many that we actually don’t have any space to bring in any dogs. It makes me worried for their lives,” said Fanning.

Fanning said most of the dogs had a hard life but deserve a loving home, all that’s needed next is the right owner.

“If you’re looking for a new fur baby to add to your home, we have so many deserving dogs right now that really do deserve a good home. They just haven’t had the right person come along. They need a chance,” said Fanning. KWTX tried reaching out to Meta about the animal shelter’s restrictions but haven’t heard back.

The Humane society said there’s a possibility it will have to euthanize 10-15 dogs due to it being over compacity.

Click here for adoption or foster options.

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