Animal shelters and rescues across the country, including those in Charlotte, are overcrowded with pets that desperately need homes.

Last week, Charlotte Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control shared that it had reached full capacity, in hopes of getting some of the animals fostered or adopted.

This isn’t a new issue for the shelter, but one that’s worsened since the beginning of the pandemic.

Like a lot of others, the local shelter had a spike in adoptions and a drop in pet returns or surrenders during the pandemic, The Charlotte Observer previously reported, along with their highest recorded live release rate in history.

But since then, it has reached full capacity multiple times over the last few years, including twice in the past two months.

“Between 2020, when we had our banner year, and then starting to get into the end of 2021 when life was getting back to normal, then 2022 and then you come into 2023, it’s like we had a rude awakening,” Melissa Knicely, communications and community outreach manager for the shelter, told The Charlotte Observer.

“Truthfully, the year of 2022 and 2023 has been basically, at any given point, I could almost send out an email that says ‘Hey we’re close to capacity’…I can’t do that everyday because it loses its effectiveness.”

Ongoing capacity issues: Why are more animals coming in to shelters?

While many cats and dogs were adopted from the shelter last year, Knicely says the shelter did take in more animals than the year prior — with pets staying at the shelter for longer periods of time, too.

“[There are] so many reasons that we’re seeing more animals coming in,” Knicely said. “Nationally, this is the same problem in rescue groups and in shelters across the United States. If you Google it in the last two years, shelters are full. So it’s not unique to this area.”

According to a previous report from the Associated Press, Shelter Animals Count, a national database of shelter statistics, revealed that country’s shelter population increased by nearly a quarter-million in 2023.

Shelters started seeing a spike in more animals being taken to shelters back in 2021, due to the aftermath of the “pandemic pet” boom, the article says. Over time, higher pet care costs and housing insecurity have also contributed to the issue.

“The economy right now is really challenging for a lot of families,” Kim Alboum of the Bissell Pet Foundation, a national animal welfare organization, said. “And with the housing crisis, people are losing their homes and are having to downsize or move in with others. And this is a recipe for disaster for people that have larger dogs.”

Locally, building renovations and even the city’s population growth have also been one of the biggest impacts on the Charlotte municipal shelter too, Knicely says.

“If you look back to 2020 and you look to 2023, you know, hundreds of thousands of people are still moving to the area…In animal welfare, your human population is going to reflect your animal population is in your community,” Knicely told The Observer. “More people are moving to Charlotte so that means there are more animals in our community, which is there is chance for more animals getting lost and ending up at the shelter.”

So while the shelter’s team has been dealing with multiple impacts for years, there’s no way to predict how many animals will be brought in on any given day.

“The thing that’s difficult about it, and I think a lot of people feel like we should have better indications of when this is going to happen, is just that we don’t know,” Knicely said. “We can have a day where we only have 15 dogs come in and then we can have the next day, we turn around and 30 dogs come in. So it’s hard for us to know.”

Is there a solution to shelter overcrowding?

Ultimately, Knicely says it’s difficult to pinpoint a specific solution that could help with overcrowding at the shelter long term.

“I think it’s kind of a hard question to answer because I just feel like we’re kind of in the season right now that we’re trying to see ‘Are we ever, you know, going to end up out of this,’” Knicely said.

“I almost feel like animal welfare needs to take a step back a minute and kind of look at the programs that we know do work,” Knicely said.

▪ Spaying & neutering pets: Spaying and neutering pets “on a large scale” works, Knicely said. This helps reduce dog and cat overpopulation, according to animal welfare group American Humane.

▪ Reuniting lost pets with owners: Also, Knicely said, microchipping pets works to get lost pets back to their owners and out of shelters.

“I would love to see more resources offering more services to get pets spayed and neutered, and low cost wellness,” Knicely said.

Where to get help:

How to adopt or foster a pet in the Charlotte area

While the goal is to ultimately find pets a forever home, even providing a temporary stay can make a big impact.

“If your home is open and you have room in your heart and your home to have a foster dog, it is taking a dog that is ready for adoption and ready to go to their new home and it’s opening up that kennel space here in the shelter for the dogs that may have behavior issues or may have medical issues, and that’s what they truly need to be here for,” Knicely explained.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control center offers adoptions, foster and staycation options for dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, farm animals and more, which can be seen in person at the shelter, on its website and social media pages, and various community adoption events held throughout the year.

There are also dozens of other pet rescue groups around North Carolina that have dogs and cats looking for homes — or for volunteers to foster animals. Here’s a list of some organizations that have partnered with the Charlotte shelter who have adoptable pets:

Local cat rescue organizations

Local dog rescue organizations