Animal shelters across Chicagoland — and the country — are overcrowded, with some shelters seeing more returns and lower adoption numbers than usual. At Chicago Heights’ South Suburban Humane Society, CEO Emily Klehm said her shelter has been so crowded that they’ve been close to “putting a dog in the bathroom,” in order to make space.
South Suburban Humane Society is a managed-admission shelter, which means admissions are tried to be scheduled to match the flow of animals entering and leaving the building. Even so, Klehm notes the shelter has been at capacity or over-capacity since the spring, and their adoption rates have dipped lower than 2019′s rates.