around 300.
“ What’ s sad is that the numbers continue to grow every year,” Sears said.“ There’ s never a dent. There’ s never a decline. It’ s almost the same. It’ s overpopulation, and not spaying and neutering and letting them run free when they’ re in heat. It just keeps us on our toes. We never get a break.”
Every dog and cat that is adopted out by the shelter has been spayed or neutered to try to prevent more unwanted animals from entering through their doors.
The shelter also takes in plenty of cats, Sears said, but with the addition of their“ cat house,” a building behind the main one that was placed specifically to house their cats, the shelter has more room for cats and usually doesn’ t have the space problem like it does for dogs.
That means they can hold cats longer. And it’ s true that sometimes it takes longer to place those cats. But there are rescues that help out by taking the cats the same as the dogs.
Scales said that the shelter averages between 1,000 and 1,200 cats each year.
“ We don’ t even pick up cats and we still get 1,200,” he said.“ We try to take a lot of our feral cats to barns. A lot of farmers help us out in that nature.”
He also credited Kayla Sellers and Kelly Tucker with HAPI – Hope for All Pets, Inc. – by helping with spay and neutering clinics.
With the intake of so many animals, it would be easy to believe that some of them don’ t get the attention they need while they are housed at the shelter. But there are a large number of people who try to ensure the animals not only get the basic necessities but also get plenty of attention and petting.
Helpers range from the shelter’ s employees, to volunteers that stop by, to inmates from the Pulaski County Detention Center that help out as part of a work release program.
Dakota Courtney with the Animal Control department said that in addition to his work responding to animal complaint calls, one of his duties is to transport PCDC inmates over to the shelter daily.
“ First thing in the morning, we go pick up inmates and bring them here. Help them so they can help us, really,” he said.“ They do a lot more than what I do.”
Their job is to help clean the kennels and shelter areas, Courtney said.“ They do most of the cleaning, so as far as keeping all the dogs healthy, keeping parvo down, diseases down, they do a lot.”
“ They’ re a valuable source to be honest with you,” Scales added.“ It cuts down on the manpower we would have to have, and it gets them out, paying back to the community.( Jailer) Anthony McCollum, he does a great job with that.”
That doesn’ t mean people like Sears have it easy. Sears
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April 2025 SEKY- Southeast Kentucky Life • 15