POCATELLO — The Pocatello Animal Shelter has been at full capacity for the last two months, and officials are asking for the public’s help in finding forever homes for all the animals.

The city said in a press release that the shelter has 189 animals as of Wednesday, a 55 percent increase compared to the same date last year when there were 122. The animals include 59 dogs, 11 puppies, 42 cats, 76 kittens and one rabbit.

“Around this time last year we had about 120 animals so we are at about a 50 to 55 percent increase,” said Randi Thompson, an administrative assistant at the Pocatello Animal Shelter. “We are running out of open kennels at this time, which makes it difficult to take in more animals.”

Thompson said the shelter currently has a decent population of older dogs, something she said has been difficult for some at the shelter knowing that the animals may end up spending their last moments inside a kennel.

“It’s been hard with older dogs or some that are special needs,” she said. “We offer a ton of discounts, including pets for vets, discounts for senior animals and senior citizens and several different promotions. We have an adoption event at the end of this month that will offer some additional discounts. We encourage local families to come into the shelter and see if they can find an animal that is a great fit for them.”

Pocatello’s shelter isn’t alone in this situation. Animal shelters across the country are struggling to care for the overwhelming numbers of animals currently in their care, let alone the new animals that keep coming in. An internet search of “animal shelters full” reveals numerous news stories of swamped rescue workers.

In August, The Wildest — a resource website for pet owners — published an article by novelist and animal advocate Cara Sue Achterbergh titled “It’s 2022, and Animal Shelters Are Filling Up Again.” Achterbergh says she talked to 30 shelters and rescues in 2021 and 2022 to try to determine why there’s been so many animals in shelters recently when in 2020 there were more people wanting pets than there were pets waiting for new homes.

She found that there are a few reasons for the huge increase in number of animals:

1. Owner surrenders have gone up. Many people can no longer afford to care for their pets given record-high inflation, housing costs and other expenses.

2. Rates of spaying and neutering have gone down. At the beginning of the pandemic, many offices shut down those programs and when they reopened it was difficult to get an appointment.

3. Rates of returning animals to shelters stayed the same — around 10 percent — but because of the number of people who adopted pets in 2020, 10 percent is much higher than it was pre-pandemic.

As such, more animals are being euthanized. Best Friends Animal Society reported that the number of pets killed in shelters increased to 355,000 in 2021 — the first increase in five years.

The city of Pocatello is asking the public to help these animals get adopted. The adoption process includes vaccinations, collars, spay or neuter surgery and a microchip. Dogs cost $130 to adopt, kittens cost $50 and cats cost $35.

The animal shelter is located at 3100 Avenue of the Chiefs. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It is closed on Sundays and holidays.

For more information about the adoption process, contact the animal shelter at 208-234-6156. To view the animals available for adoption, visit pocatello.us/animal. More information can also be found on Facebook at facebook.com/PocatelloAnimalServices.