The Cheyenne Animal Shelter has implemented a temporary wait list for people wishing to surrender their dogs because there is no space for the animals at the shelter.
Animal shelter CEO Britney Tennant told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that the shelter was down to a low of 29 dogs in the building in mid-December, and just one of those was available for adoption.
“So that was our low, and by Jan. 4, we reached a peak where we had 78 dogs in the shelter,” Tennant said. “My staff came to me and said that we basically have three or four kennels left. But we also have to be able to take in any stray animals or animals brought to us by Animal Control.”
On Tuesday, the shelter announced it would start putting people who wished to surrender their dogs on a wait list. Tennant believes the pause will end next week, as a social media post made about the wait list spurred action by some people.
Due to the social media post, five stray dogs were reunited with their owners and two were adopted. As of Thursday, 20 dogs were available for adoption at the shelter, with more waiting to pass medical and behavioral examinations or to be spayed or neutered to become eligible for adoption.
The process can take several days, since the shelter will also hold strays for three to five days to see if they have an owner who is looking for them, Tennant said
Some dogs will also be transferred to the shelter’s partners, such as one in Fort Collins, Colorado, she said.
Tennant said there is no way to determine the reason for the increase of dogs in the shelter, but noted that about a dozen dogs had come in after local police got involved in a case with an animal breeder.
She also noted that many of the adolescent dogs who have been surrendered have been accused of behavioral problems, but she chalked the problems up to people adopting a puppy when they were not prepared to take care of it as it grew up.
“We also see people who surrender dogs because they’re moving or have a change in lifestyle,” Tennant said. “And some people just aren’t prepared for the changes when a puppy goes from that to adolescence.”
While the animal shelter CEO thought all of the dogs at the shelter were lovable and great in their own ways, she named two as her top choices: Stella Rose, a Cane Corso mastiff-like dog, and Leila, a pitbull mix.
“Stella has this head-to-toe body wiggle and she has what we call a submissive grin, where she pulls her lips back and shows you her teeth while she wiggles. It cracks me up every time,” Tennant said. “Leila is a just soft, docile, sweet dog.”
