Animal shelter sets unwanted record

The Hawkeye State’s largest animal shelter has set a new record, but not one it’s very proud to report. Animal Rescue League of Iowa director Tom Colvin says the shelter in Des Moines has taken in 12-hundred more animals so far this year than in all of last year. The shelter takes in about nine thousand pets in a normal year, and this year it’s already well over ten thousand. Colvin says the over-population has forced them to make tough decisions.It means animals will have to be put to sleep just because of their sheer numbers, but he couldn’t specify how many or how soon. He says this is a particularly frustrating position to be in, since the problem could be solved by people in the public doing three things:spay or neuter pets, make sure pets aren’t outside unsupervised and being picked up as strays, commit to the pet for a lifetime and not for the short term. The shelter has more than 230 dogs and cats up for adoption at the moment, along with some 50 other pets, like gerbils and guinea pigs.