South Utah Valley Animal Shelter in Spanish Fork offers opportunities for residents and college students to get outside and serve the community.
The shelter housed approximately 4,000 animals just this last year and is currently holding over 100 dogs and close to 100 cats, shelter manager Brandy Mortenson said.
“It's quite a lot at a time,” she said.
This shelter serves areas from Provo to the south end of Utah County, Mortenson said. The shelter does not use the "no-kill" label but has a 90% live release rate for dogs.
“When you go through our dog room you'll probably notice a lot of the dog kennels have a divider closed, meaning there's a dog on both sides,” Mortenson said. “It's meant to be that it's open and a dog has space for both areas. So we are still over capacity on dogs right now, but it's getting better than it has.”
The shelter struggles more with the live release of cats, especially feral ones, Mortenson said. This issue is mainly caused when cats are not spayed and neutered, leading to a high population of feral cats that the shelter does not have enough room for.
The shelter calls the middle of the summer “kitten season," Mortenson said. This time is especially busy, with cat numbers surpassing 200.
Advocating for spay and neuter is crucial to reduce intake, with a particular need for low-cost services, she explained. The public can help by fostering animals or participating in the shelter's vacation program for dogs.
The shelter urged those who are familiar with animals to volunteer at the facility. Those who want to make a difference can choose to either walk a dog of their choice, take them on a “daycation” or spend time with a cat in the cat room.
Service missionary Trevor Jacobsen volunteers regularly at the shelter. His duties include walking the dogs, taking them on “doggy daycations” and cleaning the cat kennels.
The facility is kept very clean and the animals are well taken care of, he said.
“We clean the cats' cages literally every single day — full clean, move the cats out, and everything is wiped down,” Jacobsen said. “So it's very sanitary, and I love it.”
In their free time, Cosmin Milas and Jackie Schwartz spend hours at the shelter together with the animals.
“We just go and find whatever dogs haven't been walked in the last few days, and we try to get them out for walks. So you just go in and take any dog that needs a walk out … then we also come and socialize cats too,” Schwartz said.
Volunteering of any capacity is welcomed at South Utah Valley Animal Shelter. The only requirement is to fill out a short application.
If anyone is looking for a family pet, Mortenson recommends adopting over shopping for a puppy.
“Just adopt," Millas said. "Yeah, really. Because there's a lot of people buying dogs and then we end up with a lot of dogs in shelters."
Schwartz also added her opinion on the importance of spaying and neutering pets. She believes pet owners not doing so is a large contributing factor to shelter overcrowding.
With continued community support, the shelter hopes to ease overcrowding and find loving homes for every animal that comes through its doors.
