Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission (MADACC) is over capacity and is urging people to consider volunteering, adopting, or fostering. More than 100 dogs alone came to the shelter in the first week of January. The organization is not a private shelter, meaning staff can’t turn away the animals coming through their doors.
WUWM’s Eric Von Fellow Maria Peralta-Arellano spoke to MADACC’s community engagement and volunteer coordinator Kate Hartlund about what’s causing the overcrowding.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Could you kind of tell me what the nature in which the animals are coming in? Are they calls, strays?
Everyone here is a stray. We are the stray holding facility for Milwaukee County, the 19 municipalities in Milwaukee County. I crunched the numbers and in the same time, so from Jan. 2 to Jan. 7 last year, we had 93 dogs come in. This year we had 110. So, it's not that we had so much more, but it's that we had more dogs in shelter this year.
We had a couple court cases like cruelty and neglect cases, they have to sit here while the prosecutors decide what they're doing, we've had some of those dogs since October and they are taking up very valuable kennel space.
Everyone is trying to find a person to blame—animal breeders, careless owners—pretty much trying to point a finger. So, where do you think this issue stems from?
I agree with all of that, I think we definitely need to have stricter laws for breeding, backyard breeding. You know, someone will come in and say, "Oh I found three puppies." No you didn't, you just couldn't sell them, but we can't call someone a liar to their face. And this is gonna be controversial, but shelter's that are bringing in animals from the south, like we have to get our own community in order first. I worked in the south, I understand the problem and overcrowding down there, but we have to fix our own house first. So I think it's a combination of the economy, it's really hard, it's expensive. It's almost become a luxury to own a pet these days because care, food, everything is very expensive.
Irresponsible owners, there is that, but I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding that, I was talking to someone else earlier, and I said I think people are embarrassed when they come in here to reclaim their animal. But bad things happen to good people. A month after I started working here I lost my 17-year-old dog. My neighbor left the gate open and she wondered out and thankfully she was here. We are always willing to work with people to reclaim their animal because our goal is to reunite them with their owners. The best place for an animal is in their own home as long it's not one with cruelty and neglect.
There's also a stigma of rehoming your animal, there's nothing wrong with properly rehoming your animal and I try to get that point across to people all the time because we actually have a link on our website for Home to Home, which is a rehoming website. I run that program for us and you're not always the best fit, not every family is the right fit for every dog but that doesn't mean you couldn't have a dog. Maybe just find one that better fits your lifestyle, as long as you are properly rehoming. Don't give it away for free on craigslist.
But as far as MADACC, reclaim your dog if you have one here please, check here. This is the first place you should check if you're missing an animal and don't just check the website, come in and check, check daily or every other day to see if your animal is here.
If you’re interested in adopting or fostering a pet, you can contact MADACC by calling (414) 649-8640.
