Скачать или смотреть Northeast Ohio animal shelters becoming overcrowded, leaving many pets without their forever homes

Isabel Lawrence takes a look at how Northeast Ohio animal shelters are dealing with increased intake.

At the Cleveland Animal Protective League, dogs, cats, and rabbits are just a few of the animals waiting to find their forever homes.

As the shelter is kept busy with animal intakes, they are hoping the number of adoptions can keep up.

"We certainly are getting much busier, certainly more demand for intake. However, we're having a little more trouble moving animals through," said Sharon Harvey, president and CEO of the Cleveland APL. "We need to make sure that our adoptions are keeping up pace with the number of animals that need to come in."

According to Harvey, it appears that numbers in the shelter are starting to normalize.

"In general, we certainly are seeing our trends return back to pre-pandemic normal," she said. "So while here at the APL we're not quite back to 2019 numbers yet for intake or adoptions, they are definitely heading in that direction, and this time of year is always busy for us."

Harvey said the summer months are always busy for shelters because animals are having litters, and there's a greater risk of animals getting loose due to more outdoor activity.

Greg Willey, executive director of Friendship Animal Protective League, said that even though shelters aren't getting in as many animals as they did pre-pandemic, it doesn't necessarily feel that way, especially when he said some shelters are still grappling with challenges like labor shortages.

Willey said that after a rush of people wanting to adopt animals earlier in the pandemic, we could currently be seeing the consequence.

Read more about the Northeast Ohio animal shelter overcrowding issue here: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/loc...