The Buffalo Animal Shelter on Oak Street is facing a crisis according to its executive director. The small building has faced overcrowding issues in the past, and it once again is over-capacity with animals.
"We are relying on pop-up cages in our facility until we can get them into foster care or one of our rescue partners takes them into foster," said shelter director Jennifer Butera. "It is difficult because the animals never stop coming in."
The shelter has paused taking in cats, but under state law the municipal animal shelter must receive all dogs.
"Part of what we do is keep the community safe from dogs that are running around in the street," Butera said. "So we are required to take them in if they are stray. We will occasionally take in surrenders as well."
Staff provide care for the animals seven days a week, while a mighty group of volunteers take the dogs for walks and provide them enrichment and other recreation. Depending on an animal's condition when they come in, some even need specialized care or training, which is also provided.
Butera is asking the community to help out by adopting, or even fostering animals from the shelter so they can find a home and help improve conditions inside shelter.
"It is not healthy for the animals to live in a situation where they don't have enough space, even if it's just overnight," she said. "Go to the website and fill out the application. Come down, look at the cats and dogs. You can also foster if you are interested in doing that if you're not ready to adopt through one of our partner rescues. We can tell you more about that if you come down to the shelter."
While the city continues looking for a larger, more suitable building for the next animal shelter, Butera said they've partially secured grant funding to expand within the current Oak Street location. An architecture firm is currently designing the overhaul of a current storage space into animal housing.
To learn more about the shelter, and how to adopt an animal, visit their website at friendsofcbas.org
