The Ingham County Animal Control is cutting all adoption fees for dogs and cats temporarily in an effort to clear space from a full shelter. It also needs your help. Donations go a long way towards taking care of the large influx of animals and pets whether that's cash or things like dog/cat food and laundry detergent.
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"Once a fighting dog does not always mean a dog fighting dog," says Janelle Kretschman.
Kretschman helped start a petition to request the judge do not euthanize the dogs seized in the dog fighting ring bust.
"We don't want their past to have to define their future and we know that they have potential to maybe go on to be therapy dogs, ambassadors for the breed and maybe just go on to live good lives," she says.
Right now, that decision is in the hands of the prosecutor and the defense who are trying to reach an agreement that would allow for an expert to evaluate each dog individually and decide if they can be re-homed or need to be euthanized.
If they can't reach an agreement, judge Frank Deluca will have to decide on September 6th. But that's hard for the animal shelter to wait that long.
"It's a strain on our staff," says John Dinon of the Ingham County Animal Control. "The shelter is very crowded right now, the staff is working very hard. Summer is always our busy time, the shelter is always full in addition now we're running an auxiliary shelter that's housing these fighting dogs."
The sooner the decision comes, the sooner the shelter can decide what happens to the 16 dogs in this particular case. There are 47 in total.
For Kretschman, she just wants what's best for them all.
"The dogs didn't ask for this," she says sadly, "they didn't want t his and they're not even getting a chance to live and I think they really need to have that opportunity."
