Metro Animal Shelter seeking donations for injured animals

By WVUA 23 News Student Reporter Giselle Hood

Metro Animal Shelter needs financial assistance after an influx of cats and dogs coming into the shelter with serious injuries.

“When it’s warmer outside at any time, animals are often allowed to be outside more and they’re also abandoned more,” TMAS Executive Director Jennifer Earp said. “When that happens, you tend to get not only an influx of animals, but you see a pattern of more injured animals.”

Earp said she estimates the vet bills for the four injured animals is more than $10,000. While several dogs’ injuries were graphic, Earp said there’s no reason to believe they happened on purpose.

“There’s usually evidence of longevity in an actual dog fighting case,” Earp said. “You’ll see scars, severe wounds over time that you can tell are scaring up. But with the particular one that was in a dog fight, we don’t believe it to be intentional.”

Earp said seeing animals who have been through so much takes a major emotional toll in addition to financial. And for Metro, when resources are low, difficult decisions have to be made.

“Our goal is to help every animal in need, every animal that we can,” Earp said. “But you don’t want to see an animal suffering in the process, so it’s often hard to decide where you draw that line of continued medical care versus this animal is in a severe condition.”

If you see an abandoned pet that doesn’t appear to be injured, consider going door-to-door or putting up flyers first to ease the burden on shelters. If the animal is injured, call your local animal control officers.

“Most animals that are truly missing are only missing within a mile to 2 miles from their actual residence,” Earp said. “So do that first. It saves the cage space but it also gets the animal home faster and saves it from more harm or injury.”

If you’re interested in donating to Metro, you can click right here.