St. Martin Parish Animal Shelter faces overcrowding due to influx of animals

ST. MARTIN PARISH, La. (KLFY)-- As of today, 187 dogs have been brought to the shelter since January, 63 dogs in March alone. Volunteer Latasha Nelson said very few pets have been getting adopted, causing the lack of space.

"Most of the time it's pretty dead," Nelson said. "They've been here for a long time and nobody comes to help get them out."

Now the shelter workers are making the difficult decision of putting some animals down. Nelson said it's one of the hardest things to do on the job.

"Last week we had to euthanize eight because we didn't have any space for the ones that just came in, so that's one of the hardest things about this job," Nelson said.

She said another factor of the increase is people who leave their dogs on the side of the road.

"You have people out there that's just constantly putting their animals off on the side of the road and it just sucks," Nelson said. "We try our best to help them here."

Nelson hopes more people will come to adopt.

"Come by, spend some time, we have a play yard right there where they can spend time and see which animal fits best with their family," Nelson said.

The shelter encourages anyone out there to adopt. If you would like to adopt, dogs are $50 and cats are $25.

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