Davenport animal shelters at capacity, seeking adoptions

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - Davenport animal shelters are at capacity and are seeking out people who want to adopt.

“We are at max capacity,” said Gabrielle Weeks, a vet tech at King’s Harvest Pet Rescue. Weeks said around this time of year, shelters like theirs are used to an influx of animals because it’s currently kitten season, however, they weren’t expecting so many.

“We have kittens coming out of our ears right now. We have so many. We are so behind on appointments to get everybody fixed,” Weeks said,” We always expect kitten season but we weren’t expecting to not be able to take as many as we would like. That’s the hard part. We have people every day calling, saying they have kittens born outside and want us to take them, and we don’t have the room to do so.”

Weeks said while dogs are being adopted at a steady rate, cats are spending more time at the shelter. The normal cap on cats would be at 100 and they currently have 126, not including fosters. The current adoption rates are a stark contrast to last year.

“We get maybe one or two adoptions a day for cats where we were seeing maybe four or five. We’re having cats spend a lot more time here, where they would be adopted a lot quicker. Mostly kittens. Kittens would go like crazy and now they’re spending weeks here,” she said. "

“Issue is...right now...lack of space, and nobody’s adopting so we’re kind of at a standstill with trying to save them.”

The Humane Society of Scott County is also at capacity with animals.

“In the facility here, we have 80 dogs and 155 cats currently. Some are up for adoption obviously and some are pending, but the problem we’re having is...all the adoption areas are pretty full,” said Bob Citrullo, the Interim Executive Director. “When we get this close and really at capacity, it makes our mission even harder to be able to help the public and that’s truly what we’re here for. Obviously, we help the animals, but we can’t ever forget about the people part of that.”

If you’re thinking about adopting or fostering a pet, both shelters are accepting applications.

“This is a great time to do it. Obviously, it’s great for them, it’s great for us, you know, so it’s great for the pets as well,” Citrullo said.

“You’d be saving two lives because every animal that’s adopted out creates a space for one to come in,” Weeks said ‚” cause we can’t take any in until we move some out.”

In addition to adoption, fostering animals is also an option and opens up space at shelters for the animals who are ready to go home. To learn more about the adoption process and fostering, visit: The Humane Society of Scott County and King’s Harvest Pet Rescue.

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