SPARTA, Tenn. -
The White County Animal Shelter may be forced to put down more than two dozen dogs if the canines are not adopted by Friday.
Officials told Nashville's News 2 the shelter receives around 80 dogs per month. Of those pets, around 60% are sent to other rescue organizations and 20% are adopted.
According to manager Ronni Connelly, the shelter is scheduled to receive an additional 20 dogs, which are primarily owner surrenders, at the end of the week.
"If we can't find rescues, adopters or foster homes we'll have to euthanize [the dogs] on Friday morning," Connelly told Nashville's News 2. "We can't safely house them so we have to get 27 dogs out of the shelter by the end of this week to save their life."
Connelly, who has only worked at the shelter for the last five months, said she thinks of the animals as family. She says before she took over last December nearly every dog that came into the shelter was put down.
"To go from 99% [of dogs euthanized] to 0% and then be faced with killing 27 dogs in one day is mind numbing," she said.
According to Connelly, the dogs have been coming in at record numbers this year.
"They're all being dumped by owners, they're moving or they don't want the responsibility of a dog anymore," she explained.
The shelter said they do not have any rescue organizations lined up to take the dogs that are scheduled to be euthanized on Friday.
However, Connelly said she remains hopeful the animals will find new homes in time.
"Your heart feels like someone's got a pretty tight hold on it, it's terrible to walk into work and know that these animals that have been failed by humans their entire life and have nothing wrong with them are going to die," she said.
Volunteer Lacey McDonald added, "If anybody can pull off a miracle like that, like getting 30 dogs out in three days, we can do it."
Randi Finger was at the shelter on Wednesday adopting a dog after learning of the tight deadline.
"I saw they had a deaf Australian Shepherd I was interested in," she said. "My background is deafness, I worked 10 years on a residential school for deaf and I felt like that might be [a dog] I could work with."
In the past five months, the shelter said they have only had to put down one dog due to aggression.
The shelter will be open from 7 a.m. until at least 8 p.m. on Thursday.
For more information on the White County Animal Shelter, visit their Facebook page, or call 931-761-3647.
