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AC breaks at Austin Animal Services
Austin Animal Services is asking for urgent help fostering or adopting its animals after the shelter went without air conditioning for 10 days.
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin Animal Services is asking for urgent help fostering or adopting its animals after the shelter went without air conditioning for 10 days.
The shelter said the AC has been temporarily repaired, but they’re still asking for help from the community.
AC breaks at Austin Animal Services
The backstory:
According to Austin Animal Services, two kennel runs that house medium and large dogs lost air conditioning on August 14.
"Kennel runs are the buildings where individual kennels that house one or two dogs are holding dogs. We have two kennels, they both have 40 runs each. So, it's about 80 dogs total that were affected by the change in AC," said Elizabeth Ferrer, Austin Animal Services.
Elizabeth Ferrer with Austin Animal Services says the shelter immediately contacted the city's Facilities Management Department team, and they said special parts need to be ordered.
In the meantime, temporary measures are in place, like portable air conditioning units and box fans to keep the air circulating.
Dig deeper:
This isn’t the first time there’s been an issue with the AC at the shelter.
"We moved here in 2011, and we've been struggling with AC issues all year long this year. There have been different outages in different parts of the building where humans work, and it's just been a constant issue, "said Ferrer.
Staff say they’re making sure the dogs have plenty of water, and animal care teams check in on them throughout the day.
Vets also checked in on the dogs this past weekend as Central Texas saw record-breaking heat.
Big picture view:
Ferrer says the shelter has also been severely overcapacity for the better part of the two years. That means there's no place to move the dogs during emergencies like these.
"We have temporary kennels or what you call what people have at home. Sometimes they're called rolling kennels. So, we have 60 plus dogs. A big group of them are in one of our conference rooms. There's a bunch in the hallways, in the back hallways by vet services, said Ferrer.
Ferrer says the best thing people can do to help right now is by fostering or adopting.
On Saturday, August 29, Austin Animal Services is holding a clear the shelter event. All adoption fees will be waived.
Animal activist speaks out
The other side:
On Sunday, August 23, temperatures reached 101 degrees.
Animal activist Julie Oliver took to social media urging the city to act.
"Dogs don't have the ability to regulate their temperature the way that humans do and the way even cats do. And so, to be in conditions like that for 10 days is really harmful to them," said Oliver.
FOX 7 Austin checked the conditions on Monday. Our thermometer read 92 degrees.
"They could have put this emergency plea for fosters and adopters out 10 days ago. When they knew that it wasn't going to be fixed within 24 hours, they shouldn't have let the dog suffer for days on end," said Oliver.
What's next:
The shelter says the buildings are continuing to cool, and conditions are being closely monitored.
The shelter says the permanent fix for the AC has been ordered, and it will be installed as soon as it arrives.
The Source: Information from Austin Animal Services and interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Jenna King