Lubbock Animal Services reminded the community on Tuesday, to adopt animals so they could clear room for ongoing construction in their dog pens.
While they found homes for 284 dogs and 57 cats in February, they also had to look for homes for some less common visitors. This included a hedgehog and goat.
“People don’t understand that a lot of the animals they think are so cute and fun, aren’t allowed in the city,” said Shannon Torrez, the pet resource coordinator for LAS.
Shannon said unlike the many dogs and cats they take in, it’s fairly simple to find these exotic or uncommon animals a home.
“We have a pretty big database of people interested in those animals, people that live outside the city that have ranches or farms or something,” she said.
According to LAS, they also work with multiple shelters or conservatories in the state who can take in unique or dangerous animals.
Meanwhile, that is not the same story for dogs and cats.
While they had a 94 percent save rate for February, they said for all the dogs they save, they get more coming into the shelter.
LAS said without finding a home for their overflow of dogs, their construction could take months, when it should only take two to three weeks if they had the appropriate space.
“We are under-utilizing space for 30 dogs so if we can get 100 out we can be doing an entire row of pins, instead of just doing five pins at a time,” said Kaylee Smith, the assistant director at LAS.
LAS said they will have free adoptions for any dog in their back pen area, so they can clear out the space for construction.
