By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
“I know there’s a lot of issues going on right now,” Tucker County Animal Shelter Director Stacey Canfield said. “I know there’s a lot of different opinions and fights and things that are happening right now, but I’m here asking for that same fire, passion to be spread throughout the County for the animals.”
Canfield has been in the midst of a crisis at the Shelter. Like the rest of the State, Tucker County has seen a large influx of animals to it’s Shelter recently, leading to overcrowding. Canfield’s addressed the Tucker County Commission on the issue at their regular July 9th meeting.
“We are full and we are packed to the brim,” Canfield said. “I say that because it is not just us, it is everywhere and our state is really, really feeling the wrath of this animal crisis, people can’t afford to feed themselves and their children.”
In the month of June alone, the Shelter took in 30 cats and 19 dogs, according to Canfield. The new arrivals brought the total number of dogs in the facility up to 34.
The Shelter relies heavily on foster families to help take the load off of the facility.
Canfield said that one foster family is currently housing 12 dogs, a mother and 11 puppies. Canfield, herself, fosters seven large dogs, which she lets run with her own five large dogs at home. According to Canfield, the County supplies the food for the foster animals.
“I’m desperate for community involvement,” Canfield said. “For people to step up as fosters. A bathroom, a basement, anything that you can separate these animals safely from your other animals,” Canfield said.
Canfield said that in cases where animals are friendly, with proper introduction, dogs can roam freely with existing pets.
“My dogs, my foster dogs just run with my pack because we did proper introduction,” Canfield said.
Canfield said her goal is to maintain the Shelter’s status as a “No Kill Shelter,” one of the few in the area. To keep the Shelter’s No Kill status, the Shelter must maintain above a 90% Live Release Rate, according to Canfield. A Live Release Rate is the amount of animals that are either adopted, transferred to other partner rescues or releasing into the wild. The Tucker County Animal Shelter currently maintains a 98% Live Release Rate.
“We were a 98% No Kill Shelter for the Year of 2024,” Canfield said. “I take a lot of pride in that because there are a lot of facilities surrounding us that are not considered a No Kill Shelter and I want us to continue to stay that way for years and years and years to come.”
Canfield said that she does not want to have to be put into the position to have to consider the quality of life of the long term residents of the Shelter due to space constraints. However, the current situation is placing the Shelter in a position where decisions may have to be made.
“I would never want to be put in the position that we would have to make the decision for the longer term residents to look at quality of life because just to put it out there we are currently in a position to where we are going to have to reconfigure what we do,” Canfield said.
The crisis has meant that the Shelter has had to turn away intakes for weeks now. The Shelter has been at capacity on dogs for two weeks and three weeks on cats simply because there is no more space. Canfield said they have placed kennels in her office and the lobby and have cats in dog kennels and have doubled up dogs in kennels in an effort to make space.
Canfield said she feels that she is letting down not only the community, but the animals that she has pledged to serve.
“There are more people that we are letting down, there are more animals that need us that we are not serving and that’s not a good feeling to go to bed with,” Canfield said.
Canfield said she has tried reaching out to partner rescues for help, but it is problem that everyone else is facing, as well. Of the 10 rescues that Canfield said she has contacted in the past 10 days, the ones that had gotten back to her have said that they were even too full to even want 10 week old purebred German Shepherd puppies.
“That’s saying a lot about the crisis that we are in right now,” Canfield said.
Besides the logistics of placement of animals, the Shelter is facing a financial crisis, as well. Each intake costs a minimum of $150 for vaccinations and spay/neuter. Those costs do not include the costs of litter, bedding, food or any needed vet care the animal may need. The Shelter also suffers from aging and broken kennels.
“Right now the kennels we have, have not been renewed in a very long time, so they are rusty and we are rigging them up with zip ties and that goes for the cats, as well,” Canfield said.
The Shelter is also seeking Business involvement during this crisis. There is a need for more kennels at the facility. Canfield said she is going to begin going around to Businesses in the area seeking sponsorship for kennels and cages.
“I need to rely on the people of this County to step up and help us get these animals into safe homes while they wait on their forever homes so that we can continue to serve and help more,” Canfield said.
