County Animal Shelter In Need of Help Amidst Rising Intakes

Gardenia E. Janssen Animal Shelter (GJAS) serving Fayette County provides an important service to the community and the municipalities within the county. We are an open admissions shelter and the number of lives we have saved is unprecedented. These precious lives we have the honor to care for are what keep us going. We are eternally grateful for the ongoing support from our community.

We are an open admissions shelter required to take in every dog or cat in need that comes our way. The national benchmark for a no-kill shelter is to survive 90 percent of intake. We have survived 96-97 percent year over year from 2020. We will keep working to save everyone we can, until we can’t, but we do have to euthanize.

GJAS has been crying out for help for months on social media and print: “Help us help them! We cannot keep up with the high number of intakes vs. the low number of outcomes. The shelter is way over capacity. If you’ve ever considered adoption or foster now is the time.”

Part of the responsibility and the service GJAS provides includes the conversation about the potential for euthanasia every single day. Based on the criteria of adoptability, health, overall behavior, and acceptable social pack behaviors, not all dogs and cats are adoptable. Some could even be a liability if adopted out.

For the past few years, GJAS has been able to hold on to the ‘hard to adopt’ dogs because we could move others to new forever homes and open kennel space. We created a ‘barn cat’ program for feral cats. With high intakes and much lower outcomes, we no longer have the luxury of waiting for the perfect person with the perfect environment to walk in and choose ‘that’ dog.

GJAS has built an immense network of partners to help save these lives and have successfully transferred dogs and cats to 39 states and Canada. Adoptions are down 30-50 percent nationwide. Our partners in 2021-2022 could take 20-25 dogs each month, are now taking 8-10 per month and most much less.

It’s a community problem and requires a community solution. This is what you can do to help:

• spay or neuter your family pets.

• if you find a stray animal, foster the animal(s), and look for a good permanent home.

• if you need to surrender your animal to GJAS, please call beforehand and we will put you on the list. 979-9660021

• ADOPT or foster. Now’s the time.

As always, we post in the local papers weekly. The annual data is below. GJAS remains steadfast in our commitment and responsibility of helping those that cannot help themselves. We are immensely grateful for the support of our Community, Staff, Volunteers, Community Leaders, and Sponsors. This is an ongoing challenge; GJAS and those in our care will need everyone’s continued support.

Year Intake Lives Saved 2020 1369 1306 2021 1459 1426 2022 1409 1367 2023 1597 1560 2024* 830 799 * (as of 6/28/24)