Animal shelters across Oklahoma, including the one in Seminole, are facing difficult decisions due to overcrowding.

Last week, the Seminole Humane Society posted the following message to its social media page: URGENT! All adoption fees are $20 until further notice. All animals are vaccinated and wormed and are either fixed or come with a free spay/neuter voucher! Unless the citizens of Seminole start taking care of their animals and stop breeding litter after litter, WE WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO BE A NO KILL SHELTER. There are just too many stray animals coming in and not enough going out the door to a new home. New stricter ordinances are being drafted and will hopefully be approved by the city council next month.

The message from Jon Gary to the public and his local partners in animal welfare is direct and simple. As the superintendent of OKC Animal Welfare, Gary has been borrowing time for animals on the euthanasia list for months now. But Jon’s shelter, the largest in Oklahoma with nearly 20,000 cats and dogs entering each year, continues to see its population count hover at between 130% and 160% of capacity, and there is no relief in sight. As a result, Jon has had to make the painful decision to euthanize animals due to the lack of space, including 34 dogs at the end of January. During a recent interview with Fox 25, Gary said he had exhausted all of his options.

“It gets to be inhumane for us also,” Gary said. “We just don’t have the room. It is no longer humane to keep piling them on top of each other in the kennels.”

The OKC Animal Shelter is forced to double-up animals in kennels to help manage the overpopulation crisis.

Overcrowding is not unique to the Oklahoma City animal shelter. Across Oklahoma, cats and dogs are entering shelters faster than shelter personnel can move them out. The shelter pet population crisis, both locally and nationally, stems, in part, from the pandemic, when adoption rates first soared, but later soured as people returned to work. Coupled with that has been the financial challenge of owning a pet for those struggling with the rising cost of living, even as many shelters launch pet pantries to offer free food and supplies. In Sand Springs, animal welfare coordinator Tracy Arvidson said the shelter took in 13% more dogs last year than in 2021, while the average length of stay more than doubled, from 36 days in 2021 to 82 days last year.

“We have doubled-up animals in our kennels, held multiple low-cost adoption events, and recruited more participants in our foster program,’ Arvidson said. “Despite our best efforts, we had to euthanize twice for space last year totaling four dogs.”

Lawton Animal Welfare superintendent Roy Rodrick echoes Arvidson’s sentiments, saying the situation is critical. Rodrick says his shelter is doing everything it possibly can to free up space.

“Lawton Animal Welfare doubles up on kennels regularly and looks for ways to drop adoption costs,” Rodrick said. “There’s an adoption event here every first Saturday of the month.”

Meanwhile, in Miami, at the city-run Ketcher Keheley Animal Shelter, manager Maycee Goza says that while there has been an increased need for animal intake, the shelter has been limited to emergency calls because of an ongoing kennel renovation.

“We are focusing our efforts on reuniting pets with owners in the field instead of bringing them to the shelter, Goza said. “Even so, the shelter has had to double-up animals in kennels on several occasions during the past year.”

Everybody Common Bonds talked with for this story agreed that the number one thing their communities can do to help alleviate overcrowded conditions is to spay or neuter their pets, something that is often not done with the animals entering their doors.

“The vast majority of dogs we take in are not sterilized and we almost never see a cat that has been spayed or neutered,” Arvidson said.

More immediately, Goza says she would like to see Oklahomans take ownership of the animal shelter overcrowding issue as a community problem rather than simply a shelter problem.

“Pet ownership is a commitment that comes with responsibilities, from ensuring your pet doesn’t reproduce to keeping their vaccinations current,” Goza said. “If there’s a behavioral issue that is causing a pet owner to consider surrendering an animal, we encourage them to pursue training rather than rehoming, or worse, dumping an animal off somewhere when shelters and rescues are full because more than likely, they’ll eventually be coming through our doors.”

( Seminole Producer Editor Ken Childers contributed to this article).