In the 1970s, Fairfax County’s animal shelter was built as a dog pound. Now, it’s overflowing with cats, kittens and other critters.
Shelter officials say the glut of felines is one of the reasons why a proposal to nearly double the size of the shelter on West Ox Road is on the Nov. 7 ballot. Voters will decide whether to approve $17 million for the shelter renovations and expansion, part of a $150 million bond referendum that pays for an array of police, fire and park facilities throughout the county.
The animal overpopulation has prompted the facility’s staff to pack cages into tightareas, including a hallway, said shelter director Karen Diviney on Tuesday. The hallway now houses a variety of small creatures like lizards and ferrets, which they hope to keep separate.
“Everything here at the shelter has got these multiple uses,” she said. “It’s not efficient, and it’s not very effective.”
A lack of parking at the facility has also become a major problem, she said. The shelter was created before a rise of apartments, condos and town houses in Fairfax County prompted residents to move to smaller pets, according to Diviney. At peaks during the summer, the facility has housed over 100 kittens and cats, she said, while their capacity, comfortably, is around 30. And stressed cats get sick faster, she said, prompting more euthanization. More space would give them the ability to separate sick and healthy felines.
The explosion of the cat population is far from confined to Fairfax. Localities all around the region are struggling to handle the influx of strays, some of them feral. The Washington Humane Society recently launched a campaign to spay and neuter the growing number of feral cats living in the city’s vacant lots and alleyways.
