CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. — More than 200 dogs and cats fill the kennels at Griffin Pond Animal Shelter.
Shelter Director Ashley Wolo says they're at capacity and are having a tough time keeping up.
"We're seeing things that we've never seen before regarding the influx of animals and just the type of situations and the severity of the situations that we're taking in lately," Wolo said.
This time of year, Wolo says they deal with a lot of animal surrenders as well as strays being dropped off by area police.
In years past, Wolo says they haven't had to ask for donations, but are now requiring municipalities to donate $110 per animal.
"In the past, we've been lenient, you could say, but this year we really took a look at everything. We took a step back, and we said we need to enforce these policies that we're putting in place," Wolo added.
The $110 for one animal might seem like a lot of money, but Wolo says that money doesn't last very long.
"Veterinary care, medications, vaccines, utilities. It's just not feasible to offer services for free anymore. If you follow us on social media, you could definitely see some of the cases that we take, another really heartbreaking and a lot of them are medical cases. So it's pretty extensive treatment, constant, that visits a lot of medication and just months of recovery," Wolo said.
Wolo says they'd like to help every animal that comes through their doors for free, but it's just not feasible anymore.
"We're doing our best to work with the municipalities. Of course, not everybody's going to agree with it, and we understand, but we hope that everybody understands the position that we're in because we just simply don't have a choice if we want to keep our doors open," Wolo explained.
There are plenty of pets available for adoption, and the shelter always welcomes donations from the public.
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