Miami-Dade Animal Services puts out plea for pet adoption as shelters reach 'critical capacity'
WEST KENDALL — Miami-Dade Animal Services put out a plea to the community saying they are at "critical capacity."
They have almost 1,000 pets in their shelters.
"Our capacity is 350 dogs, we're at 800 dogs this week," Director of Shelter Services Annette Jose said about the Doral facility.
That impacts the attention and care the dogs get.
"We're having to double up dogs where usually we would like to have one per kennel, we're having to double up because we have limited space," Jose said.
This means the shelter has to selectively turn dogs away.
"We're asking people to hold on to the dog," Jose said. "If you're having some kind of difficulty with the dog, we're going to help you, we will give you resources to keep that dog at home, but coming here to the shelter is really the last resort for a community."
The shelter started bringing dogs out into the community more often.
"How to help, how to open our doors, how to engage our community," Joaquin Azar thought when he heard the shelter was full.
Azar is the corporate ambassador at the Lexus and Toyota of West Kendall, a facility that has close to 800 employees.
"Our employees have animals themselves — they adopted from Animal Services," he said.
Azar said this is their fifth time hosting a community adoption event, where close to 30 dogs have been adopted — three, by him.
In addition to adopting, there are so many other ways that you can help out here at the shelter. You can foster, you can come and take dogs out for the day, or you can walk them around the facility.
"As you see, the dogs that are being walked here, they're all large dogs, but there's so many benefits to large dogs, "Jose said. "They're fun, they're beautiful, but a large dog can be the best companion.
While hundreds in the community step up every month to adopt, more dogs are entering the facility than leaving.
To adopt a pet, click here; and, if you want to volunteer, click here.
