WPBN: In the upcoming year, a number of animal shelters in New Mexico may experience congestion. New Mexico shelters are concerned about Colorado’s proposed plan to limit animal transfers across state lines.
According to Española Humane, this new restriction will have a significant impact on their services, as they sent 1,000 animals to Colorado this year.
“In New Mexico, all of us are just so overwhelmed with the number of puppies coming into shelters and recues that we don’t have enough placements for them,” Mattie Allen, communications director with Española Humane stated.
Having to deal with an excessive number of animals is a challenge that animal shelters in New Mexico confront. Allen stated that the solution for them is to transfer animals because there are an excessive number of animals due to a lack of people who are willing to adopt them, which can sometimes result in the animals being put down.
In a statement made by Jack Hagerman, the deputy director of Albuquerque Animal Welfare, it was stated that “the only option for those potentially could be euthanasia,” and that is precisely what we are attempting to avoid by transporting them out.
According to Hagerman, shelters in Albuquerque would not be impacted, but it might be detrimental to smaller rescue organizations.
Adding some limits to the process of animal transfers is something that Colorado, a state that takes thousands of animals from New Mexico, is looking to do. Concerns have been raised about shelters in remote areas that are dependent on the state.
That places a significant load on all of the rescue organizations and shelters that are responsible for providing care for puppies that have been moved to other states. In the course of this year, we have personally moved more than one thousand animals, spoke Allen.
In accordance with the proposed regulation, animal shelters would be required to provide the animals with several vaccinations and to notify the Colorado Department of Agriculture one week prior to the transfer.
According to Allen, this can be challenging due to the fact that small pets cannot obtain rabies immunizations until they are three months old, and the process of presenting a list of animals who have been transferred is not an easy one.
“We frequently are changing the list of animals that are going to Colorado two days beforehand because, you know, a pet got adopted and so we’re substituting another animal in its place,” Allen stated.
Although they move animals to other states, Colorado has shown to be a dependable destination for overworked shelters in New Mexico, according to Allen.
“They have had such a robust spay and neuter all these years that there’s actually you know a demand for puppies,” Allen stated.
According to Española Humane, they perform 7,000 free spays and neuters annually and intend to start construction on a facility next month to perform even more.
According to the Colorado Department of Agriculture, a rule-making hearing must be held before a decision is made, which is expected to happen in the fall of 2025.
