Sarasota County Animal Services seeks adoptions as it nears capacity

Volunteer Foster Coordinator Kristen Little says each summer the shelter for animal services at the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office sees an increase in the animals it must take into its care. 

Now, to help ease that increase, Sarasota County Animal Services is urging people to adopt. 

While many people know about animal services' numerous rescue partners, including Cat Depot, the Humane Society of Sarasota County and St. Francis Animal Rescue, there are fewer people who are aware of Animal Services, Little said. 

Animal services is the source of many animals that are ultimately adopted from its community partners.

"A lot of people don't realize that we're out here at the end of Bee Ridge Road," she said. "We're not really a central location, and so I feel like sometimes people think, ‘Oh, that's just animal control,' but we have adoptions too."

Animal services only takes animals from inside Sarasota County, and Little believes adoptions can relieve capacity for rescue partners as well, giving them further opportunity to serve a wider area if doing so is among their goals.

The shelter's animal population has been hovering around 140 this month and last month, according to information provided by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday.

The adoption kennel holds 19 dogs and utilizes an overflow space when necessary, and is holding 26 dogs with more entering the facility daily.

It also has 16 kittens and 11 cats available for adoption, with 21 in foster care, and some that have been placed, with more adoptions pending.

Photo by Ian Swaby

Little says one reason for the summer increase is many feral cats that are not spayed or neutered are producing litters.

“It usually starts in March," Little said. "This year we really got a good pop in about May, so a little bit later than we were expecting, and so that's why it's really important to have foster parents on hand to be able to take in those kittens."

Foster parents care for kittens too small to be served at the shelter, which will take them back once they have reached a sufficient weight. 

Little doesn't know the reason for the increase in dogs, although she thinks one reason may be because of people heading north.

"A lot of times in July, (adoptions) seem to go down just across the board for us, for our rescue partners," she also said. "I don't know if that's because of the July 4 holiday. People are traveling, going on vacation, summer's out. … But those are my theories."

In addition to being on what is a dead-end street, outside of a central location, she thinks another reason people may skip over animal services is that, while they are referred to by that name, people may think of them as "animal control."

"It sounds intimidating, and especially when it's run by the sheriff's office, it can be intimidating for people to come out, and what are they going to find? What are they going to see?" she said. "I think we do a good job of really, everything's clean, bright, happy, kept up. So I think that helps.”

Pets come spayed or neutered, with first shots, negative heartworm tests if they are a dog, and negative FIV/FeLV tests if they are a cat.

The shelter has three staff members dedicated exclusively to its dogs, as well as volunteer dog walkers who exercise them, play with them and provide enrichment, including through the facility's pool. 

Volunteers for the cats feed them, clean their litter boxes and play with kittens. (Older cats tend to be more solitary.) 

They're not the only ones seeing an increase in numbers right now though. 

Satchel's Last Resort, a local no-kill shelter, is one of animal services' community partners. 

Muffy Lavens, director of development and community engagement at Satchel's, wrote the shelter has seen an increase in people looking to surrender their pets. 

It has a lengthy waitlist, which currently includes 68 animals, with spaces being filled "almost immediately" once a dog or cat is adopted.

She wrote that because the shelter was seeing "such an increase in animals entering the shelter environment," it is in the midst of a capital campaign to expand its shelter and nearly double its capacity.

"We see a real need for what we do in Sarasota County and the surrounding areas, so the time is now to build a larger kennel and cat room," she wrote.