UNION5 COUNTY, N.C. — Union County’s animal shelter, along with others across the region, are facing crowding and capacity issues, according to shelter and rescue staffs.

In June and July, the Union County Animal Shelter brought in more than 700 animals, according to Lieutenant James Maye with the Union County Sheriff’s Office. Maye said about 400 of those animals were adopted out.

“Seven-hundred plus, for our facility, is a large number. It is a slight increase from what we’ve seen in previous years. But, like I said, we just continue to try to manage a full shelter and we try to manage that by partnering with our local rescues and obviously using social media,” Maye explained.

The shelter works regularly with about 35 local rescues and other organizations to adopt and foster animals, which helps with crowding, according to Maye.

One of those rescue organizations is Forgotten, Now Family Rescue, which was started by Chrissy Elder during the pandemic.

Elder and her rescue have helped more than 1,700 dogs, most of which are costly medical cases, according to Elder. 

Elder said she’s also experiencing similar crowding and capacity issues at shelters across the region.

“This is something I’ve never seen. Rescues are asking other rescues to help themselves. Fosters are so far and in-between right now. And I think a lot of that is, during the pandemic, people adopted puppies and now they’re realizing when we go back to work, it’s a lot of work,” Elder said. 

However, Elder said her rescue and others like it rely on fosters and adopters to help curb crowding and get dogs and cats out of shelters and into better situations.

One of her fosters, Katie Ryan, said it’s up to the community to fix the current animal population problems.

“Pet homelessness is not something being caused by the local government or by the shelter. It’s a community-based problem,” Ryan said. “Irresponsible pet owners not spaying and neutering and relinquishing their pets at extremely high rates. So, it’s a community problem and people in the community need to step forward to foster to solve it.”

Ryan is caretaker to a lot of dogs, with not all of them being hers.

“During the pandemic when we saw the need, we were home a little bit more, and then we started to hear an increased plea in the last year or so and wanted to step forward and help the community,” Ryan said.

She and her family opened their home to foster dogs in the spring of 2020, and never looked back.

“I’m a pet lover, and I’m also a mom in this community, I’m a member of the community and I see the need,” Ryan added.

Her young son Sam loves having the extra dogs around and enjoys treat time almost as much as they do.

“It’s very important to us as parents to use this as an example to the kids to teach kindness, to give back,” Ryan said about her children and the foster dogs.

The Ryan family has three dogs and two cats of their own, but works with rescue organizations to foster more. At the time of this story, they were fostering two dogs, Jonah and Pearl.

“Whatever your dynamic is, if you’re in a family, if you’re retired, if you’re a young professional, the rescues can find you a pet that is the perfect fit for your lifestyle,” Ryan said.

Also, depending on the organization, it can be free to foster.

“My animal rescue covers all of the expenses that I need. They purchase the supplies, they purchase the food, and they take care of the vet bills as well. So, really all I am providing is the love,” Ryan added.

Jonah and Pearl, her current fosters, suffered from mange when they were first rescued but now are fully recovered and ready to be adopted by forever families.

“There’s nothing quite like the reward of seeing them move on to their next chapter, get to be in their forever homes, and you know really a happily ever after moment. It’s very special as a foster,” Ryan said while feeding them treats.

If you are interested in adopting foster pets or applying to be an animal foster parent, you can click here.