Shelters Swell With Lonely Pets

August 22, 2003, New York Post, p 25

SHELTERS SWELL WITH LONELY PETS
By HEIDI SINGER

[Photo: Dog in cage]

ADOPT ME . . . OR I'LL DIE:

This adorable Labrador retriever puppy at the Brooklyn Animal
Care and Control center is waiting for a home.

The city's animal shelter is overflowing with dogs and cats, and officials are begging New Yorkers to save a life by adopting one now.

"We really need the most appropriate homes we can get for these animals," said Jody Jones, spokeswoman for New York City's Animal Care and Control. "We need the community to respond now."

Shelters normally get inundated with big litters of kittens in the summer, because spring is the traditional mating season.

The burden gets heavier at the end of August, when people change apartments or move away, leaving their pets behind. Then the blackout caused a setback because lack of refrigeration prevented workers from euthanizing about 100 dogs and cats - even as 150 unwanted animals a day kept pouring in.

The rescue groups are overloaded too, so the shelters are full of puppies, kittens and adults of all sizes and stripes.

A beautiful Welsh corgi puppy is sitting in a cage at the Manhattan shelter, along with a young beagle and spaniel. There's a gorgeous Siamese waiting at the Brooklyn branch, and every shelter and rescue group in the city is packed full of kittens.

"I'm swamped with call after call with people giving up animals, said Adjamine, of New Yorkers for Companion Animals.

The shelter desperately needs volunteers to foster litters of kittens that are too young to be kept in the system. For information about locations or volunteering, call (212) 442-2076. The center's Web site has pictures of adoptable animals, and is updated throughout the day: http://www.nycacc.org.