SEATTLE - The director of the Seattle Humane Society says the non-profit would have to double in size to care for animals that would be released from the King County's Animal shelters.
King County had planned to close its two shelters, one in Kent, the other in Bellevue by the end of the month, but newly elected County Executive Dow Constantine now wants more time to consider other options.
In November, when the King County Council voted to close the shelters because of poor management and budget issues, then Councilman Dow Constantine in favor of the proposal. But after concerns that other area shelters won't be able to take on the added burden of about 10,000 animals a year, Constantine will ask the council to delay the January 31st deadline. The majority of the burden would then fall upon the Seattle Humane Society.
"We would need to double our size and our budget in order to take on all those animals," says the agency's executive director, Brenda Barnette. "We couldn't do that without some help from King County."
Other non-profit animal rescue groups would also pick up the slack, but many of them are in the same situation - with too many animals and too little money.
Constantine appears to be looking for some sort of "regional approach" to deal with the issue. Full details have not been released.
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