Staff photo / Mason Cole Dogs at the Trumbull County Dog Pound are feeling the stress of overcrowding, according to deputy dog warden Michael Delbono. He said the county pound at 7501 Anderson Ave., Warren, has 20 kennels, which are full, and seven additional dogs are in separate crates throughout the shelter.

WARREN — Trumbull County’s dog pound is past its maximum capacity, and shelters and rescues in the Valley also are dealing with overcrowding.

“We have about 30 or so dogs right now,” said Michael Delbono, the county’s deputy dog warden. “We’re just really overcrowded right now. Not too many people are adopting right now.”

Delbono said that the county pound at 7501 Anderson Ave., Warren, has 20 kennels, which are full, and seven additional dogs are in seperate crates throughout the shelter.

Delbono said that despite size and capacity limitations, there is no maximum number of dogs the warden will take.

“So if we get a dog, we have to take it,” he said. “We always have rescue shelters in mind, so we always try to call them and see if they can help us out.”

Delbono said one issue the pound faces is the uncertainty of when more dogs will arrive.

He said that some days, there will only be a few; other days, there could be a surge of incoming dogs.

He said the shelter accepts dogs all day, every day, so uncertainty of when large numbers will arrive is difficult to handle.

“We can get dogs 24/7. We have an after-hours phone that we take calls from, so it’s truly a never-ending cycle. We could go a few days without getting dogs, but when we do, it’s just swarming in here like nobody’s business,” he said.

Delbono said the overcrowed pound adds stress to the dogs as well.

“When they come in, they don’t know what’s going on. They’re lost and when we put them in their crates, they don’t know any better,” he said. “They spill their food, and they’re just not in their normal boundaries. It puts a strain on everybody, really.”

AN ALTERNATIVE

In June, Trumbull County commissioners said theyhave been looking to relocate the Trumbull County Dog Pound to about 20 acres on the northwest portion of the Animal Welfare League’s property at 812 Youngstown Kingsville Road SE, Vienna.

Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said, at the time, initial discussions would have both organizations preserving and protecting domestic animals, with simultaneous use of the space.

“At the end of the day, this is going to be a complex,” Cantalamessa said. “It’ll be sort of a one-stop shop for adoption and care for dogs in Trumbull County.”

Animal Welfare League CEO Lori Shandor said the organization is now exploring its partnership with the county dog pound, and that there is no specific relocation date set for the pound.

“We are still looking at what our lease agreement would look like and things along those lines,” she said.

She said AWL and the pound have been discussing moving the pound to the league’s property since the beginning of the year, but it’s too early into the agreement to know the details.

“We’ve talked about them moving into our building, but that didn’t work,” she said. “We talked about them building here a couple months ago.”

ANIMAL CHARITY

Animal Charity of Ohio, in Mahoning County, posted an appeal for donations of food and other items recently on social media: “It’s no surprise to anyone, Animal Charity of Ohio is struggling with the severe amount of increasing intakes. Every single ‘intake’ is a life. A life that was suffering from abuse, neglect, abandonment, cruelty, hoarding at the hands of their owners.”

The substantial increase in services had led Animal Charity to plan for a bigger building, purchasing 8469 Southern Blvd., Boardman. It will be large enough to be able to bring in the increased number of abused, abandoned and neglected animals.

The newly purchased building, however, is not yet fit to be moved into, according to Jane MacMurchy, Animal Charity coordinator.

“We are working on raising funds so that we can move in,” she said. “It is an empty warehouse that needs completely renovated.”

She also said the new 22,000-square-foot building will give the agency more space to hold the animals, since the agency has been at maximum capacity since 2020.

“Currently, we don’t have enough space to hold all the animals,” she said. “It will have all the space we need and all the employees will be under one roof.”

Animal Charity now has two buildings, one in Boardman and one in Canfield, which the agency will move out of once in the new building.

The agency states on its website: “At the time of purchase, we did not have enough money raised to cover the cost of that building … As such, our only option was to take out a bank loan for the purchase of the building. An emerging crisis was upon us and the building was needed in order to continue our service of these animals. We are now accepting donations towards our building fund…”

BROOKFIELD SHELTER

Jason Cooke is the president of the Healthy Hearts and Paws Project in Brookfield. He said this shelter is full with 59 dogs, as well as 39 in foster situations with other households.

Cooke said in most cases, when Healthy Hearts and Paws finds and houses a dog that escaped from its family, no one ever comes looking for it. In years past, he said, that was not the case.

“A couple years ago, when a dog would go missing, eight times out of 10 the owner would be redeeming their dog within 24 hours,” he said. “Now, it seems like it’s almost the opposite. Only two or three times out of 10 are they coming to get their dogs. The only explanation that we’ve been able to come up with is that people are just letting their dogs go.”

Much like the Trumbull Pound, Cooke said his shelter is simply out of space. He said many shelters in the Valley that he has been in contact with are saying the same thing.

According to Cooke, the supply of spaces to surrender dogs is being outweighed by the demand.

“My phone never stops, morning into the night, with people wanting to surrender their dogs,” he said. “After they’ve called every shelter in the area, and we’ve all told them that we don’t have room, I imagine that’s how these dogs become stray dogs.”

Cooke believes there needs to be more programs in place to help struggling owners keep their pets in their home. He said he encourages owners to have their dogs spayed or neutered to limit the amount of puppies that end up without housing, starved and / or abused.

He believes simply providing more educational resources to new pet owners could help limit the amount of dogs that end up in shelters.

“Sometimes people really don’t know how to deal with a dog that is having behavior issues,” Cooke said. “And instead of reaching out for a trainer, they just throw their hands up and say, ‘I can’t do it.’ There are things out there that can help those people as well.”

Delbono said the only real solution is that more Trumbull County residents need to adopt dogs.

“That’s pretty much it,” he said.