Charleston Reporter

Abigail Appleton, No Kill South Carolina 2024 chief project officer, is sounding the alarm about the condition of the state’s animal shelter system.

“Nearly every shelter in the state, including the largest shelters [Greenville County Animal Care, Charleston Animal Society, Horry County Animal Care Center and Columbia Animal Services] are at the breaking point and need help now,” Appleton said in a news release by the Charleston Animal Society. “These lifesaving organizations are critically overcapacity and there’s no sign of it letting up, especially as the pandemic is surging again and folks are not getting out as much as they did earlier this summer”

Recently shelters across the state joined forces to launch the Summer Slam Emergency Rescue Operation. 

No Kill South Carolina 2024 and the South Carolina Animal Care and Control Association (SCACCA) leaders recognize that their task won’t be easy.

“We are in unchartered waters, in a perfect storm,” SCACCA President Shelly Simmons said in the Charleston Animal Society release. “We have the end of summer slowdown in adoptions, the peak of hurricane season and the pandemic resurgence.”

To aid in overcoming the emergency, residents are now being encouraged to visit their local shelters to adopt or foster animals at-risk.

“This is a community crisis, not only an animal shelter crisis, just as COVID is a community crisis, not only a hospital crisis,” Simmons said in the release. “Everyone has a role to play.”

Businesses, rescue groups, governments, and the media are also being called on to help by doing everything from becoming adoption ambassadors to taking in at risk animals.

“We don’t declare a ‘State of Emergency’ unless the situation is dire and we know that if we work together, thousands of lives can be saved,” Simmons said in the release.

Appleton added, “many shelters are waiving their adoption fees or significantly reducing them in an effort to get more people to take home a shelter pet. We’re asking all shelters to implement managed moratoriums and accept only animals in danger or who present a danger to others, until we get out of this State of Emergency.”