They might look pretty, but a Ventura County Animal Shelter says that fireworks are the reason they are currently well-above capacity. Over 150 lost dogs have been brought to the shelter in Camarillo since the holiday earlier this month.
In the corner of the small dog room at the animal shelter in Camarillo, a new arrival is having his photo taken. In the cage beneath him is a French Bulldog, who is pacing left and right waiting for his owner. In the far corner, a white Poodle Maltese mix looks wide eyed with fear - wondering, 'Where’s my owner…are they ever coming for me?'
Outside, many of the larger dog breeds are now housed two per kennel.
"It's bad. You can see over here we're pairing up dogs in kennels and this is not ideal at all," said Randy Friedman from Ventura County Animal Services.
These are all owned dogs, says Friedman.
"These are all animals who just got out somehow, and we're hoping that their owners find them here," he said.
"We scan all the animals for a microchip when they come in. We do deep dives on the microchip. We follow up, we call numbers, we write letters, we email people," he explained.
"If there is no microchip, if they don't come in with the tag, we put their picture up online. We have partnered with Petco Love Loss, which is a nationwide database for lost animals which utilizes facial recognition technology. But it depends on the owner to upload a picture of their pet on the other end, so the facial recognition technology can match them. So again, we will do everything we can to put the animal's image out there, but it really depends on the pet owner to make that effort to look for them," said Friedman.
He says there’s been a significant uptick in the number of dogs brought into the shelter since the July 4th holiday, and he blames one specific aspect.
"It's fireworks, hands down," he said.
"Every year it seems to start earlier and go later. Fireworks scare animals. They jump fences. I've heard of stories from our animal control officers, of animals running through fences in their backyards, running through windows that are closed because they don't understand what fireworks are. And when people go to firework displays, they leave the house. Then a lot of them come back to an empty house to like, 'where did my dog go?' Right? They jumped the fence and the lucky ones will end up here at the shelter," said Friedman.
He says he’s never known the shelter to be this full.
"This is the toughest time of year for animal shelters across the nation. And we've never seen this spike in animals coming in before," he said.
Friedman says the shelter has 146 dog kennels, and usually a rate of about 20-25 dogs coming in per week. But, he said, since the July 4th holiday, a total of 150 dogs have been brought in to them.
He’s urging owners to come and reclaim their pets.
"These are all owned animals. These are not animals who've grown up on the streets. These are people's pets who just got out somehow, and maybe some people don't know that we're here. Maybe some people don't know that the shelter exists, but we're just asking people come and get your pets," he said.
These four-legged family members know they don’t belong here and hopefully soon they will be reunited and back home with their families.
