Cabot woman calls on community to help local animal shelter

CABOTT, Arkansas — Overcrowding remains a major problem at Arkansas animal shelters, as staff struggle to find adopters or fosters to house what they already have.

Normally, all eyes turn to the people responsible to fix the problem, but one Cabot woman said it will take everyone in the community to make a real difference.

“We get displaced pets every day,” said Brandi Boy of the Cabot Animal Shelter. “We get calls in the evenings, and calls on weekends.”

You’ve probably seen pets wandering around your or someone else’s neighborhood, but it wasn’t until Rossi Medlin took on a pair of paws herself that you realized what lay beneath the surface.

“I didn’t know at all that every place was full, and there was no one to take care of him because they were full too. I didn’t know it had gotten to this point,” Medlin said.

Medellin said last week she found two puppies running in the street in her neighborhood. The dogs had no tags and there was no owner in sight.

“We thought we would keep them and put them down until we could talk to the shelters,” Medlin said.

Medellin ended up holding the dogs for three days before the shelter picked them up.

She said the experience opened her eyes to a greater need in the community.

“If people in our community can make an impact and help, reach out and ask these questions first,” Medlin said. “How can we donate? Do you need food? Do you need washers and dryers? What do you need?”

Medlin said it will take everyone coming together to help disinfect the shelters.

“It’s huge to have them come in and say, ‘You know what, we want to help you do what you’re doing because you’re helping us,'” Bowie said.

Shelter leaders said providing community assistance has already reduced the numbers of recipients. The staff said they hope the two can work together to end this problem nationwide.

“We’re all seeing a shortage of adopters, a shortage of volunteers, adopters and donors,” Bowie said.

If you find a stray dog, have it scanned for a microchip, Bowie said. Next, you asked to put up fliers to see if you could find the owner first before bringing him to the shelter.