AIKEN, S.C. (WJBF) – The SPCA Albrecht Center has welcomed a lot of new guests in recent weeks. But now they are considering completely closing their doors to intake until more animals get adopted.

“I’ve been working with SPC for about a year now, and we’ve been overcrowded the entire time. This is definitely the worst that it’s been,” said Kami Vogel, Manager of Foster and Volunteer Services.

The center recently took part in an adoption event called Pick Me SC, and over 9 days they adopted 80 pets. It seemed great at the time, but now they have 230 total animals in the building. 80 dogs and 148 cats, along 60 more in foster care. Vogel says this is happening due to vet shortages across the country, on top of things going back to normal post-COVID. 

“Now that people have gone back to work, now that things have gone back to normal, people realize that they don’t have as much time. Or, things are a lot harder than they thought now that they aren’t home all day. So they’re no longer able to care for those animals,” said Vogel.

And unfortunately if help doesn’t come to rescue the shelter, they may have to close their doors, until enough animals are adopted to make room: it’s something that no one here wants to see happen.

“When we have to turn away animals, that just increases the likelihood of them ending up on the streets, increases the likelihood of them being injured, getting sick, being hit by cars, being picked up by the wrong kinds of people. Ideally we would be a place that is a sanctuary for all animals all of the time. But we have to look at our capacity of care,” said Vogel.

The best way for you to help this shelter is getting involved through adopting or fostering. To find more information on how to help, CLICK HERE.