Euthanasia at area animal shelters is up by double digits as thousands of Coloradans surrender their dogs
Colorado's animal shelters have reached a tipping point.
Dogs that once were adopted within days are now waiting weeks or months and some never make it out. While many shelters have "no-kill" policies, those policies don't apply to dogs that are unhealthy or unsafe.
According to the National Canine Advocacy Group, the six largest shelters along the Front Range took in just over 42,000 dogs last year and euthanized nearly 5,000 of them; a 24% increase over 2022.
Now, the state's oldest shelter is turning some dogs away. The Dumb Friends League has long billed itself as a "socially conscious shelter," accepting all unwanted animals - but as dog surrenders soar and adoptions fall, Dumb Friends is suspending its open-door policy.
"For decades in this community we have stretched and stretched and stretched as the need in the community has grown and this is pushing us to the limit where we are no longer able to stretch," says Dumb Friends League COO Katie Parker.
Under new policies, surrenders will be by appointment only and only if there's space, while most strays will be referred to municipal shelters in the jurisdiction where they were found. Access to the night shelter will also be limited.
Dumb Friends says it took in about 10,000 dogs last year -- a 9% increase over 2022 -- and euthanized about 1,200; an 18% increase.
Parker says many of the dogs were adopted during COVID and never socialized. The longer they stay in a shelter, she says, the worse their mental state becomes, making them unsafe.
"While they might have been adoptable, and we might have tried to find them a home, the more they wait here, the more difficult they are to find a home for," she said.
She insists the shelter will not turn away any dog due to behavioral issues alone: "It's first-come-first-serve. It's about volume and the number of animals per day. It's not about what their needs are and how adoptable they are."
The dogs that Dumb Friends doesn't have room for have to go somewhere, and many end up at Denver Animal Shelter.
"We are the only open-admission animal shelter in the Denver Metro area," said Shelter Director Melanie Sobel. "We don't turn anybody away."
She says the municipal shelter took in nearly 500 dogs in July after Dumb Friends changed its policies an 18% increase over July of last year.
Not only are more dogs entering the shelter, 75% to 80% of them aren't spayed or neutered, due in part to a loophole in state law. A bill at the state capitol was aimed at making the law harder to exploit, but it was watered down. Denver Animal Shelter provided free spaying and neutering to 1,000 animals last year alone.
"There should be a mandate that every animal over the age of 6 months should be spayed and neutered," says Sobel.
Animal imports, she says, should be banned. Last year alone, rescue organizations trucked in 18,000 dogs from out of state, even as Colorado shelters were overflowing.
"There's animals sitting in shelters languishing in Colorado that need homes," says Sobel. "And they're grateful- they're so grateful when they get a second chance."
Dumb Friends says its change in policy is also driven by economics. The non-profit generated $25 million in revenue last year but ended the year nearly $8 million in the hole.
Meanwhile, the City of Denver slashed funding to Denver Animal Shelter by 5% last year, even as admissions increased by 33%.
