Wake’s Animal Center is changing its pet surrender policy. Again. Here’s the latest.
The Wake County Animal Center will once again accept animal surrenders from owners, after less than a month of saying it would stop the practice.
“The center originally decided on Jan. 2 to suspend accepting owner surrenders due to space limitations, but some in the animal rescue community asked that we resume this important service,” said Wake County Commissioner Vickie Adamson in a news release. “Resumption of owner surrenders, by appointment, on a space-available basis is one piece of a multi-pronged approach for dealing with the capacity issues in our community.”
The center will now allow owners to surrender unwanted pets starting Feb. 1 with an online application.
Wake County’s animal shelter has been over capacity for the past two years, often issuing public pleas for adoptions to avoid euthanizing adoptable pets. The center closed for eight weeks to quarantine about 100 dogs because of a canine influenza outbreak. Four dogs died during that outbreak and, at the height of the of the outbreak, nearly 80 dogs had symptoms.
“We really tried not to go to this route,” Dr. Jennifer Federico, Wake County’s animal services director, said in a previous interview with The News & Observer. “But I think after canine influenza, it just made us reconsider a lot of things.
“And it’s not fair to the animals to be housed inappropriately because we couldn’t say no to people,” she said.
How people can surrender their pets
The center should still be used as a last resort, according to the news release.
Owners should first:
- Search websites dedicated for private pet rehoming.
- Reach out to friends, family and co-workers to spread the word the animal needs to be rehomed.
- Contact the rescue organization or breeder where a pet was obtained.
- Search for a breed-specific rescue for help.
Once those options have been exhausted, the pet owner can submit an online application to surrender their pets.
“The staff will review applications and consider the urgency of need and the availability of space,” according to the news release. “If no space is available, applicants will be placed on a waiting list. Staff will assist applicants in placing their pets on rehoming websites while waiting for space at the Center.”
Surrender appointments will not be followed on a first-come, first-served list. People who adopted from a local rescue may have a lower priority, since they are expect to return the pet to the rescue.
