Overcapacity — 151 animals in need of homes in McCracken County

MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY (KBSI) – With 151 animals in-house, McCracken County Humane Society is overcapacity.

The executive director, Traci Phelps, said it’s become common for the shelter to have more animals than they can handle.

“Anytime we’re overcapacity it just kind of throws us into a tailspin trying to get these animals into homes,” Phelps said.

She said the holidays make adoptions more challenging due to reduced staff and fewer open hours.

McCracken County animal control director James Holler said winter can be dangerous for stray animals — potentially causing them to become hypothermic.

“If you know anybody who can adopt and mainly who can foster — fosters are big — if we could get some dogs moved out, we could bring some dogs in,” he said.

Phelps said fostering animals temporarily frees up space. The people who foster the animals help the humane society learn more about the animal’s personality. This helps them find the right match when someone wants to adopt an animal.

“It gives us a wealth of knowledge and we have a little report card that they fill out when they come back,” Phelps said.

It can help them learn if the animal is okay with other dogs or cats, if they can handle being in a home with children, or even things like how well the animal does during a car ride.

One of the workers, Whitley Devary, said she wants people who want to foster or adopt to know that there’s a rule of threes. She said, it takes three days before the animal comes out of their shell, three weeks before you really start to see their personality and three months before they’re the animal they’re going to be in your home.

“I promise you, that is a good dog. That is a good cat. It just takes time,” Devary said. “It takes patience and it takes time for them to bond with you.”

You can learn more about McCracken County Humane Society, here.