CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) -
If you find a stray dog or cat and want to drop it off at the City's Animal Control, you better hold onto it.
Animal Control said they just don't have the space or the manpower to handle the large volume of unwanted animals.
The folks at the City's Animal Control are overwhelmed. There are so many stray cats and dogs, that the staff just can't keep up. Sadly, they can't put them down fast enough in order to keep up with the number of drop offs they have seen in the last couple of weeks.
"I don't think anybody can say that we don't have an issue here," said Commander Todd Green of the Corpus Christi Police Department. "We have a serious problem."
Green minces no words when it comes to the crisis facing the City's Animal Control. In recent months, the facility has seen numerous staff and management changes, all in an effort to make it more efficient to deal with the stray and unwanted pet population plaguing the city.
While those changes have all been positive ones, the real problem continues to grow. Just a few weeks ago, Animal Control announced it would try to adopt out as many of the animals as possible; but now so many people are dropping off unwanted animals, on top of the strays being picked up by Animal Control, that the system is on the verge of a major problem.
"Last week, we had over 90 cats come into the facility," Green said. "Out of the 90, 20 of them are owner surrenders, and it just comes down to a question of the space available. We don't have the space available to keep those animals or to keep any more animals at this point, so when we get to our capacity, we just have to put a stop to that for awhile until we have more room in the facility."
Two local no-kill shelters, PALS Animal Shelter and the Gulf Coast Humane Society, said that they too are filled to the brim with animals, at capacity or worse.
For now, Animal Control says hold on to the strays if at all possible, and remember to spay or neuter your pets.
