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Shelters across the country find homes for between 95% and 99% of their dogs, said Nathan Winograd, executive director of the No Kill Advocacy Center in Oakland, California. And those agencies face the same challenges as St. Louis County.

“But they are not using that as an excuse to either kill or to leave abandoned and stray dogs on the street,� Winograd said.

Last year, the St. Louis County shelter found homes for nearly 92% of its animals, according to public health department data. If a shelter maintains 90%, it is considered “no-kill.�

But this year, with a shortage of staff, space and resources, the shelter has been operating in “emergency� status. Animal control officers haven’t been able to bring in strays because the shelter is so packed with unadoptable dogs, leaving the county with no choice but to euthanize more of them, county officials said.

County Executive Sam Page said this week that animal control had to make a difficult policy decision to solve a problem no one wanted to address.

“We knew we had to deal with this. We knew we were on a trajectory that wasn’t acceptable. We knew we didn’t have room for all the animals,� Page said. “At some point some animals have to be euthanized and it’s something we don’t like, but we have to have room for new animals to come in.�

Winograd said there are plenty of ways to avoid euthanasia and also keep strays off the streets. The county could spay or neuter stray populations, and automatically spay or neuter animals brought into the shelter. They could start or increase offsite adoption events and incentives. They could partner more with nonprofit organizations and work harder to rehabilitate dogs with behavior problems.

“These dogs deserve to be sheltered, rather than leaving their care to chance,� Winograd said. “And they deserve high-quality care once in the shelter and to either be reunited with their families or found a loving, new home. St. Louis County leadership could offer that if they really wanted to, but they don’t.�

The shelter managed to achieve no-kill status before, said Amanda Zatorski, a former animal population control manager at the shelter. Zatorski is suing the county, alleging she was forced out of her job because she raised concerns about the shelter’s operations.

Zatorski said she cut the shelter’s population in half shortly after she started in December 2019 by partnering with nonprofit shelters and rescue operations. Management fired her a year later after she publicly opposed a privatization effort and raised concerns about misconduct, according to her lawsuit.

The county signed a $15.8 million five-year contract earlier this year with the Animal Protective Association of Missouri, a widely respected Brentwood-based animal shelter, to take over the shelter’s operations. The nonprofit could provide greater flexibility to work with volunteers and organizations, possibly alleviating overcrowding.