As a very large number of cats and dogs have already been dumped or left behind across Belgium this summer, animal shelters are becoming overcrowded and are sounding the alarm.
More and more animals are being dumped when their owners can no longer take care of them, Kevin Vankeirsbilck of the Ghent animal shelter told De Standaard. He recently found a dog tied to a tree with a bag of food and some toys next to it.
While the shelter spread images of the dog on social media – which were viewed thousands of times – no one came forward to claim the dog as theirs. "It was already the fifth dog in ten days to be dumped or abandoned," said Vankeirsbilck.
Now, Ghent's animal shelter is "excessively full," as are the ones in the Antwerp municipalities of Schoten and Wommelgem. In the French-language newspaper La Dernière Heure, the chair of the SPA animal shelter in La Louvière said that they even have to turn away police officers with rescued animals.
The new shelter pictured during a symbolic dog parade to a new animal shelter in Ghent, Saturday 22 June 2019. Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
"It has come to the point where a police officer who wanted to bring in a lost animal is himself taking care of the animal in his own home for the time being," chair Gaëtan Sgualdino told the newspaper. "There is no more room at the shelter. I have already taken in three animals myself, but more would be too much."
This also means that animals that are dumped are punished twice, as the shelters have no background information on them and do not know if they are good with other animals or children and do not know whether they can be alone at home. "As a result, we assume the worst-case scenario and that naturally limits the chances of adopting such an animal."
Meanwhile, animals that are brought in according to the regular procedure can be placed more easily as the shelters are given more background info on them. Mainly large dogs such as Staffords and shepherd dogs are brought in, which are even harder to place as not everyone has the space for them.
