The Beaver County Humane Society is issuing an urgent plea for adopters, fosters and volunteers amid a kennel cough outbreak.

It's been a rough summer at the Beaver County Humane Society. It has been receiving dogs in droves, and not enough people are adopting.

Shelter manager Cailin Rankin said dog adoptions are down nearly 10 percent compared to this time last year.

"We've definitely seen a steep decrease in our adoption numbers. Even with us having monthly adoption events, they have still been pretty low. Historically, what we usually operate in the summertime, that's usually our peak," Rankin said.

To make things even more challenging, the shelter is managing a kennel cough outbreak. Several canines are sick with the respiratory disease that can spread like wildfire.

"It's pretty mild as far as the symptoms go. They're not too severe, but it's just hard because it's so contagious," Rankin said.

"We're trying to basically limit cross-contamination or cross-exposure as much as possible. So, it's keeping rooms that have sick dogs isolated, not adding new dogs to that living area, keeping other dogs in different rooms that are considered healthy or unexposed rooms," she added.

While quarantining exposed pups, they lose kennel space. The shelter has been forced to temporarily close dog owner surrender intakes, but people can join a waitlist.

"With an illness like this present currently, we have shut down intakes unless it's absolutely an emergency. With a hope that if we can close things off, even if it's just for hopefully a week or two, that it's contained quicker, and that way we get through it faster," said Rankin.

Rankin said the shelter desperately needs fosters to help it make room for more four-legged friends.

"They're the greatest heroes, because they are able to temporarily give an animal a home and then bring them back when an adopter picks them," she said.

The Beaver County Humane Society also always needs volunteers willing to lend a paw.

"When they get taken care of by a volunteer, that lets our staff really dedicate time to the animals, to their care, and the animals get extra people. They get extra family, that's their temporary family for every day, which is really cool," Rankin said.

The shelter remains open for adoptions. People can see the available dogs waiting for their forever families on the shelter's website. People interested in fostering or volunteering can apply and learn more online, as well.