San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter to hold Clear the Shelters event
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter is seeing an increase of animals in its shelter as Hays County's population continues to grow. This month, the shelter is holding its annual Clear the Shelter campaign in hopes of finding its animals a forever home.
KXAN’s Avery Travis and Will DuPree spoke with San Marcos Animal Shelter Community Engagement Coordinator Minnie Buckhaults on Tuesday to discuss its Clear the Shelters event happening on August 23. They were also joined by Hey-Hey, a 2-year-old, pitbull-terrier mix also looking for his forever home.
This event is important for the San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter because it's the only open intake shelter in Hays County. Buckhaults explained that being the only intake shelter for the area does impact the shelter’s capacity.
“As people may know, Hays County is growing exponentially in population. We are a very small shelter -- we only have 93 dog kennels and we’re taking in anywhere from 50 to 100 dogs per week,” Buckhaults said.
Although the shelter is grateful to work with rescues, doctors and fosters to get their dogs adopted, Buckhaults said they are taking in more pets than they can manage at this time.
Travis said recently the San Marcos City Council and Hays County Commissioners agreed to separate the shelter from the county. This means the San Marcos Animal Shelter would be able to focus on the animals they intake. Reports say that could happen in about a year, but what would that mean for the county and its stray/ surrendered animals?
Travis asked what that change would look like for Hays County.
Buckhaults responded, “I know that Kyle is working on building an animal shelter and potentially partnering with Hays County to be an open intake for them.”
As for the San Marcos Animal Shelter, Buckhaults said it would help with their intake.
“We are just seeing so many pets come through our door -- especially from Hays County, Kyle, Buda, San Marcos, and we just don’t have the space to take them all,” Buckhaults said. “This would be a huge help to us just to make sure animals are seeing the utmost, best care that they can.”
DuPree reiterated that Clear the Shelters is ongoing across the country in August, including the shelter in San Marcos, and asked Buckhault what their success looked like from last year’s campaign.
They were able to “clear our cat room in two hours” and Buckhaults said that was an “amazing thing to see a cat room be completely empty.”
It was - and is - a huge day for dogs as well, Buckhaults said. “We want to make it an even bigger day for dogs this year.”
“We are hoping to get about 60 pets out. Our goal is 30 dogs and I'm really hopeful to make that happen,” Buckhaults said. “We have seen so much success in the past from doctors. We have a lot of people that show up for the waived fees … so we are excited to match people.”
Buckhaults said the shelter will open an hour earlier than its normal hours on August 23 to give people more time to get through the door and adopt.
“We’re eager to help people and make sure they get a pet they are looking for,” Buckhaults said.