‘We’re desperate,’ overcrowded Clay County animal shelter points to growing national problem

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — Shelters across northeast Florida say they’re taking in too many animals without the room to care for them.

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In Clay County, animal services staff tells Action News Jax the shelter is in dire need of help.

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“The situation is pretty desperate,” says Skye Barkley, volunteer coordinator at Clay Animal Services.

Barkley’s only been working at the shelter for a month, but is already working overtime. She says animals have been pouring in since the day she started, and it’s causing the shelter to take on an unbearable amount of stress.

“Sometimes it feels like there’s floods of them,” Barkley says, “they just keep coming.”

The shelter says it has a little more than 70 kennels, almost all of which are full with dogs and cats ready to be adopted or fostered, as well as small or sick animals not ready to have a permanent home.

Some of the kennels already taken are having to double up because of how many animals are coming in.

“The stress levels are high, it really puts a hard burden onto our staff,” says Barkley.

Part of the reason it’s feeling the burden now is because the shelter is still struggling to help find homes for the more than 70 dogs and cats it collected from a Middleburg in January. Action News Jax told you at the time the owner had been hoarding the animals inside.

Most of those animals have been adopted. Still, the shelter is full.

RELATED: Kennels are completely full; Clay County needs adopters ASAP

“Everyone’s trying to get these animals into homes, so it’s very frustrating, at the end of the day, when we don’t,” Barkley says.

Barkley tells Action News Jax finding enough space for the animals coming in feels never ending, but it’s felt far beyond Clay County lines.

Action News Jax called all of the county animal shelters in northeast Florida to look into the situation beyond Clay County. Some still haven’t responded to us, but this is what we heard:

• Bradford County: no response yet
• Baker County: At capacity
• Clay County: Over capacity
• Columbia County: Over capacity
• Duval County: Over capacity
• Nassau County: no response yet
• Putnam County: awaiting shelter numbers
• St. Johns County: no response yet
• Union County: no response yet

Overwhelmed shelters are becoming more of a problem in the southeast. Shelter Animals Count, a company collecting animal welfare data from around the U.S., says in 2023, Florida (#3) and Georgia (#7) were ranked among the states with the highest animal intake rate at its shelters.

It’s a growing issue Barkley says has a simple fix, but no easy way of getting there.

“We need people to adopt,” Barkley says, “but depending on how adoptions go, there really is no end in sight.”

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If you’re interested in adopting or fostering an animal, Clay County has a website with its list of animals available at the shelter. You can see the list by clicking here.

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