MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Manatee County Animal Welfare is overloaded with animals in the aftermath of Debby. Facility representatives say nearly 120 animals were found or turned in during the week after the storm.
Animal services in other counties were also impacted by Debby.
Hillsborough County's Pet Resource Center said earlier this week that they were operating at more than 150 percent capacity.
In Manatee County, the animal welfare system offers a foster program where pets can temporarily join families during a storm.
Debby didn’t just impact Manatee County residents — pets in Manatee County were affected, too. Jennifer Hume says the animal welfare facility in Palmetto is over capacity.
“A lot of those strays may be getting out of their fences. Somebody may be letting them out to party. And a lot of times during the storm, it's very stressful,” she said.
Hume is the animal care division manager. One of her responsibilities is to keep track of the intake of the animals. That job became more hectic in the aftermath of Debby earlier this month.
“The first week of the storm, we got 120 animals. Since then, we've about doubled that number. It’s been a very large amount of strays,” she said.
But not all were strays. A dog named Arrow was dropped off by his previous owner.
“His house was completely flooded, so his family had to make the really difficult decision to bring him back here. He was originally adopted from us, but the family was going through a hardship and had to move out of the area,” Hume said.
She says the storm has also impacted adoptions.
“In correlation with back-to-school, we always see a little lull in adoptions, but we've definitely seen a much larger lull since the storm,” Hume said.
She says there are more than 250 animals in their entire system, and in an effort to help increase adoptions, they’ve waived all adoption and reclaim fees.
Hume also wants to remind people that animal welfare can provide free food to take home, which could prevent families from giving up their pets.
“A lot of people were flooded. We don't want you to feel like you have to get rid of a family member, or one of your pets, just because you may be going through that temporary hardship,” Hume said.
But the shelter being over capacity does give her concern.
"We want to make sure that we have room for animals coming in, because we do have to pick up sick and injured animals and strays out in the community. So we can't just stop intake,” she said.
One way to bring attention to the animals currently in the shelter is through social media. Hume oversees those posts.
“We do weekly meetings with multiple teams to make sure that no dog slips through the cracks. We want to make sure that every animal has a plan,” she said.
Hume has a plan in place to help these animals find their forever homes.