The Brownsville Animal Regulation and Care Center is almost filled to capacity and shelter officials are doing all they can to get the dogs and cats adopted as soon as possible.
If the animals cannot be adopted out soon, officials will have no other option than to put them to sleep, which is something they are trying to prevent, said Jacqueline Hernandez, assistant director at BARCC. “It is something we don’t like.”
The shelter on Oct. 19 posted on its Facebook Page it is limiting the intake of stray animals, landlord abandonment or end-of-life services until further notice.
BARCC has experienced an increase in owner surrenders and many are attributed to the ongoing pandemic. With people now returning to their offices to work or returning to on campus learning, they no longer have time to care for their pets or can longer afford to care for them financially, Hernandez said.
“We are seeing a lot of that. We do see some strays coming in but they are much less than your owner surrenders,” Hernandez said.
Like many other shelters around the nation, dealing with a shortage of euthanasia medication is both a blessing and a curse, Hernandez said, “because we have to come up with creative ways to save as many lives as we can.”
“We are trying to be as transparent as we can with the community to let them know what is going on in real time so they can better understand A, what is going on and B, what we need or what we would ask the community to help us with,” she said.
The way the community can assist the shelter is by either finding homes or adopting the pets themselves or finding rescues or fostering for a rescue dog or cat.
The shelter constantly uses social media, especially its Facebook Page, to let the public know what animals are up for adoption. Photos of dogs and cats looking for their “furever” homes are uploaded daily to show the public what animals the shelter has.
On BARCC’s website the public can visit Pet Harbor to see what animals are available for adoption.
“I’ve come from all types of shelters from all over the place and we have a really great variety of dogs and cats; big, small all adorable. … I think that we have some pretty cute animals down here in the Valley with great personalities. Anyone who is looking for an additional family should definitely check out the shelter. All of these animals are just eager to be part of your family,” Hernandez said.
For individuals who already have pets but are unable to adopt any additional animals because of space issues, the shelter has an Angel Adoption program in which a member of the public can sponsor the adoption for a dog or cat to be adopted out by someone else.
Sharing photos of the animals on social media is also a way to help the animals.” It’s amazing to see how many animals are at the shelter just kind of waiting,” Hernandez said. “If you are not the person who can adopt just sharing their picture goes a long way.”
The shelter also offers up to 50% off adoption fees for students, teachers, members of the military or a public servant. Proof of identification is required.
BARCC also seeks participation from the business community that might be interested in holding adoption events. TESLA held an adoption event in August and all animals up for adoption were adopted within 30 minutes.
“We are always open to hear anyone’s ideas. … We are all about adoption events. We want to go out to the community as much as we can and just give all these pets an equal opportunity,” to get adopted, Hernandez said.
Members of the business community interested in holding an adoption event can call BARRC at (956) 544-7351 or email Hernandez at: [email protected] .
