When shelter’s full, unadopted dogs go to heaven

Halfway Homes, the Kansas City facility that handles all captured and abandoned pets, is in crisis mode. A recent spate of animal drop-offs has maxed out the shelter’s space, forcing the staff to euthanize perfectly adoptable dogs and cats, often with little notice.

“We have to make the decisions very quickly, which makes it hard,” says Jennifer Shive, adoption counselor at Halfway Homes. “We can’t even give the dogs 24 hours. We can, all of a sudden, have no place for all these dogs, and our only choice is euthanasia.”

Yesterday, an influx of 25 dogs from Animal Control forced the shelter’s hand. Halfway Homes is obliged to accept all animals that are left with it, but shelter space is a zero sum game. Once the shelter was full, “at least 7 dogs that were available for adoption were euthanized,” Shive said.

“Sometimes it’s a question of how long the dog has been here, or if anyone is even looking at it,” she said. “We have a lot of dogs that look alike, so they’re all competing. We look at what’s most adoptable, and take the ones that aren’t moving as fast.”

Black dogs and pit bull mixes are the slowest movers, she added. Most dogs’ stay lasts about a month; the longest tenured dog has been at the shelter for less than 2 months. Yesterday, the shelter’s Web site was listing dogs as urgent.

Adoption costs range between $50 and $100, Shive said. If you were

thinking about getting a dog for Christmas, now’s your chance.

“It is urgent,” Shive said. “The same thing can happen today. The same thing can happen tomorrow.”