WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) – The Humane Society of Marathon County is known for doing all they can to help animals find a home. A criminal investigation for Central Wisconsin K-9, a dog training service in Schofield, continues to cause a strain for the humane society.
This investigation has brought in eight more dogs for the humane society to care for until they find loving homes, but that also means less room for their other dogs and an overwhelmed staff.
The best solution they could come up with is pausing dog surrenders until there’s more space.
“How do we get out of this just vicious circle right now? What can we do?”
Lisa Leitermann directed this question to her staff when they realized how full their hands were with these new dogs.
“While it’s a very important part of what we do in a service that we offer to the community, that was really kind of the only place we had some wiggle room because we can’t control how many stray dogs there are or what criminal cases are going to come up or how many animals are going to bite people and not be rabies vaccinated,” she said.
In general, the Humane Society of Marathon County has been seeing dogs sit for longer in their care and wait to be adopted. Leitermann hopes this freeze helps reduce stress for the staff and create a better environment for their 50 dogs to live in.
“We are a very small, very dedicated staff, but we’re overwhelmed and not knowing kind of how long that space is going to be occupied, that just felt like the best thing to do to try to give us some time to breathe,” said Leitermann.
Since this freeze started, she’s noticed a positive response from the community.
“[They’ll say] Wow, like let’s look at the situation and look at what we are doing in our own lives with our own pets or our own, how we’re purchasing pets or where we’re looking for new pets,” she said.
Volunteering and donating are more than encouraged at this time, but the best way to help is by adopting.
“The visibility of the shelter pets, not forgetting that they’re here, knowing that they’re waiting, is the biggest thing that’s going to help right now, is getting them out,” said Leitermann.
She adds the staff hopes to end the freeze on Saturday, but that’s not set in stone just yet.
They’ll be making a Facebook post when the freeze ends.
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