A North Texas animal shelter at the end of its financial rope received a donation Thursday morning that will allow it to stay open for another month.
A 75 percent drop in donations since last year caused the Humane Society of Dallas County's shelter to stop accepting surrendered animals for the first time in its 30-year history, officials said.
The no-kill shelter, Dog and Kitty City, has seen a 25 percent drop in adoptions as fewer people are willing to take on the extra cost of caring for a new pet.
The Humane Society said Thursday it received $10,000 in donations, enough to keep the shelter going for another month.
The shelter was about $2,000 short of meeting its monthly budget of $12,000 for November, leaving it financially unable to spay and neuter cats, said Sandra Mustafa, the shelter's director, on Wednesday.
"We live on donations, but right now, they aren't coming in," Mustafa said in an online story Wednesday for The Dallas Morning News.
James Bias, president of Texas' Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said a slumping economy doesn't always affect pet adoptions and shelters.
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"There isn't a correlation that we have seen," he said.
Mustafa said shelter workers had a raffle to raise funds, but donations have been slow. She said the shelter, which has about 300 cats and 20 dogs, has been hampered by nearby road construction that has made it difficult for walk-ins to access the facility.
"We used to have people walk in and check out the pets," said Theresa Fonseca, a shelter employee. "Now, people only come because they saw a specific animal on the Internet. It isn't the same anymore."
"I am just hoping. That is all that I can do at this point," Mustafa said. "Somehow, some way, it will work out."
Despite the economic downturn, the shelter does what it can for animals it finds abandoned on its doorstep.
