Animal Shelter Needs Volunteers

A not so clean situation at the El Paso Animal Services shelter has one ABC-7 viewer upset.

She wants to know why she saw feces, urine and even blood in some of the cages.

“To make people understand it’s like, put yourself in the place of Octomom and having 8 babies to take care of. When one is clean, there’s another one that has the diapers dirty,” explained Eduardo de Castro, the city’s deputy director of public health.

He said of the 48 employees at the shelter, only 9 take care of the kennels.

De Castro told ABC-7 he only has TWO animal caregivers in the afternoons. The employees not only care and clean up after 500 animals, they also escort people around the kennels.

“It’s a rough job,” he said.

Borderland residents visiting the shelter said the cages aren’t too bad. “What do you expect? I mean it’s an animal shelter, they’re strays. If people would neuter their dogs, we wouldn’t have a problem,” said Joe Guerra as he dropped off a chihuahua he found.

El Paso Mayor John Cook said he wants to give the shelter more resources.

“We neither fund animal services correctly for them to be able to the job the right way. Everything we do is reactionary right now,” he explained.

One option is having prisoners who aren’t a public danger help out.

“Is it possible to bring some of those people in and get them to do work in the shelters? I think that’s a legitimate question,” Cook said.

De castro explained volunteers of any kind would be welcomed.

“Two spots we have, need volunteers in are key punching, microchips and licensing information, so we’re up to date with the registered animals and escorts to the different areas of the facility to help the people with to locate their animals or find an animal they want,” said de Castro.

The deputy director told ABC-7 the shelter has no volunteers right now.

He said they wouldn’t clean out the kennels, but could help in other areas.

To apply, click here.