SAN DIEGO — Back in November, the San Diego Humane Society paused owner surrender of dogs due to the spread of a respiratory illness at the shelter. Tuesday, that pause was lifted.
They are now accepting owner-surrendered pets by appointment only and continue to take in stray pets. More than 40 pets were brought in to the San Diego Humane Society over the New Year’s holiday, and that number is expected to grow over the next few days.
"We did have to put a temporary hold on owner surrenders when we were experiencing cases of a the respiratory disease called Strep zoo at our shelter. We have lifted that hold now, so you can make appointments on owner surrenders. However, we really don’t encourage people to bring pets in to the shelter. We encourage them to rehome their pets on their own," said Nina Thompson, Public Relations Coordinator at the San Diego Humane Society.
The respiratory disease, Strep zoo, was likely caused by the overcapacity of pets at the shelter. Right now the humane society is still over capacity, but luckily numbers have gone down.
"We are down a little bit," said Thompson. "We are right under 1,000 pets in our care total. We've been over 2,000 before. For dogs, we are at 108% capacity, that's 8% over capacity. However, it is so important to keep our capacity low, because we can't put them at risk of disease."
Every dog is healthy at the shelter now and free of any disease; that’s why the humane society is consistently encouraging people to adopt or foster pets if they can.
Last year, the humane society took in 147 lost pets. Only 56 were reclaimed by their owners.
If you pick up your lost pet, the humane society is waiving reclaim fees until Sunday, Jan. 7.
"We have had a lot of pets in our care for a very long time. The shelter is no place for a pet. It's not like a home. If you have room in your home and your heart, try out adoption or foster a pet. We provide the resources, and now is a good time because we have so many deserving animals who need second chance for the new year," said Thompson.
Go to the humane society's website to see some of the many lost dogs that were brought in over holiday weekend.
If you lost your pet, you can text "LOST" to 858-SAN-LOST. This will provide step by step instructions on what to do. If you would like to adopt a pet, the humane society has more than 400 pets up for adoption.
Watch related: San Diego Humane Society pauses surrenders amid two disease outbreaks (November 20, 2023