DeKalb County Animal Shelter needs help adopting, fostering animals

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - The staff at the DeKalb County Animal Shelter has been having to turn away strays. The shelter has been packed beyond capacity. 

Officials said a few weeks ago they had 550 dogs in the facility that is designed to hold 470. There weren’t even enough kennels for all of them.

"We had to use temporary housing crates, so we weren't able to house the dogs comfortably," said Cheyenne Hoover with LifeLine Animal Project that runs the shelter.

It got so crowded the Georgia Department of Agriculture had to get involved.

"The Department of Agriculture had to step in and do a stop intake order," said Hoover.

The community support team is there to offer information and resources, but they have to turn away any new animals.

"They'd say, ‘Sorry, we have a stop intake order. We're unable to bring the dog into the facility at this time,’" Hoover said.

The shelter has been offering free or reduced cost adoptions, making a big push for fostering. They're also telling people who find lost pets to post pictures on the Nextdoor app and other social media outlets to get them reunited with their owner, rather than dropping them at the shelter.

"I saw it on the website, they had an issue and couldn't bring any more in," said Russell Maraman.

Maraman decided to come take a look for himself and ended up finding a new best friend.

"I was looking at shelters and knew they were hurting, so we figured we'd come look," Maraman said. "I found this one and it just clicked."

With the help of people like Maraman, the number of animals in the shelter has dropped to 400, about 70 below capacity, but the "no intake" order remains in place.

They are hoping the Georgia Department of Agriculture will soon lift it.

Anyone interested in helping the shelter can find out more at lifelineanimal.org.