Frontline to Shelter Director: Confronting the Memphis Stray Crisis

So what changed between when we went out with you in 2020 on the streets and when we went back out with you in 2025? That...

It was absolutely a totally new situation from our perspective, being gone for five years and then coming back and seeing it again.

It was absolutely new situation.

Why? Why did that happen? How did we get from that point in five years?

Well, don't get me wrong, Memphis has always had a stray problem, and I did feel like we, you know, we were making progress.

We were building relationships.

We had a relationship at the time with Memphis Animal Services, you know, doing some spay and neuter programs, and had we been able to continue that, I th- and, and even MAS at the time to be able to build on a spay and neuter program would've been the progressive way forward.

Um, but what we started seeing in 2019 was a policy of limiting intake and scheduling pet owners that needed to surrender pets, they were scheduling months in advance.

That was already starting in the fall, uh, winter of 2019.

And then when COVID hit, it was really a springboard for MAS to say, "Okay, this, this is the policy that we're taking, that we've adopted for COVID to adjust," limiting intake and- Leaving basically the strays in the neighborhoods for the residents in these neighborhoods to help these pets find their way back home or help these pets find a home on their own.

And it, you know, it was a policy by a large nonprofit organization being pushed around the country, and of course, those were grant funding and, and, you know, pretty opportunities for shelters that needed funding, and it was a policy to follow that is parts of those, of, of the programs that, that that organization offered.

You know, yes, foster program, absolutely needed for any shelter.

Um, offering pet resources, offering dog food, crates, that kind of thing to try to help prevent a pet from coming in, absolutely.

Any shelter should be doing their best to offer those.

However, those resources can't be the only resource.

You can't close the doors.

Um, th- that's one thing I absolutely have seen being in the position is that when an owner shows up here or someone that finds a pet, they, you know, they can't keep, they've just tried to help the pet.

They show up here with a pet, they can't keep it or the owner at that point is being evicted or has an issue.

They're not leaving with the pet, so if you turn them away, they're, they're going to dump it.

Um, and it's unfortunate, but I mean, we are open intake and they'll dump them in our parking lot 'cause they don't wanna wait, um, to, you know, show a driver's license.

They just, when they're done, they're done.

And now that's not always the case.

You have some pet owners or finders that are willing to hold onto them, and you need to work through those.

Uh, but you, you can't turn away the ones that really truly need the help.

And so that was, again, going back m- 2020 COVID, that was really the launching pad for Memphis Animal Services to adopt this practice, and they proceeded with that for seven years.