BEREA, Ohio — Between the barks and the meows, the phone is a constant sound at Berea Animal Rescue Friends.
“It’s been insane,” said Christine Turner, the receptionist at the shelter. “People want to surrender their animals, their dogs or cats, for whatever reason. It’s sad but we do what we can to help them.”
Rachel Santodomingo is the dog manager at Berea Animal Rescue. She said in the 10 years she has worked at the shelter, she’s never seen it quite this busy.
“I don’t know if it’s because people don’t have the money to keep the dogs right now because of the environment in general,” said Santodomingo. “It’s been overwhelming.”
Berea Animal Rescue is a no-time limit shelter, which means the animals can live out their lives there if they’re not adopted. They take in animals from shelters throughout Northeast Ohio and the state when those shelters are at or near capacity.
“We pull dogs from all over the place. We work with different shelters that pull dogs and they give them to us and we also take strays and owner surrenders,” she said. “We have so many dogs here and in foster.”
While plenty of their animals get adopted and find their fur-ever homes, Santodomingo said they still need help.
“We need fosters for all of those types of dogs and cats and cats and also to get them out of the shelter in general so we can make room for other dogs and cats to come in,” she said.
Fosters don’t need to do much, besides offering a loving and safe home for the animal.
“We give you anything you need. We can give you crates, cages, food, blankets, toys. We do all of the medical care,” she said.
Berea Animal Rescue has open adoption times on Fridays from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. You can also make an appointment.
To learn more about how to foster an animal, just click here.
