Several animal shelters are overcrowded

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. - With all the severe weather we’ve seen this summer, more strays are flooding into Humane Societies across Michiana.

One facility, in particular, said it has to think outside the box to keep the adoptions flowing.

The Elkhart County Humane Society moved to a larger facility and they’re still seeing a lack of space.

It’s not just Elkhart County. Marshall County is full, too, and not taking any more animals right now. St. Joseph County’s Humane Society is also close to capacity.

Rob Laroy, the Executive Director for the Elkhart County Humane Society said it’s because of the facility’s “open admission” policy.

They have to rely on fundraising efforts and creative adoption specials to clear out the shelter because they’re always taking in more than they can handle.

“It’s just a general problem that we see right now. A lot of animals are running loose in the community and people do their best to take care of their pets. But sometimes when they get out, they can’t be caught,” Laroy said.

Just last week he said they made 45 rescue runs, which is double the amount they normally run.

Animal shelters are dealing with an overflow of pets during these summer months but they’re not the only ones. We spoke with one woman who said some owners have been dropping off their cats at her home, instead of taking them to the shelter.

Ivania Miller currently has an uncountable number of cats at her home and the last time she counted she had 19, with one being her own.

According to the Laroy, once you feed a pet for more than three days, you technically own them, and they can’t spay and neuter them for free.

For Miller, she doesn’t want to pay the fees for the cats that aren’t hers.

“We tend to get a lot of people’s drop-offs, they don’t want to pay the fee, so they put them in boxes, drop them out at random hours at night or we just wake up in the morning and find someone’s not so loved one anymore at our house,” Miller said.

The Elkhart County Humane Society is pretty full right now, but the facility is still accepting strays.

In Marshall County, however, that isn’t the case. Those officials told us they are at max capacity and cannot take any more owner surrenders.