Want to adopt a pet? Animal shelters need help from another unintended consequence of Alabama's immigration law.
When immigrants "voluntarily deported themselves," as the law's sponsors said they wanted to happen, they left a herd of stray animals behind.
Central Alabama animal shelters today are reportedly flooded with animals abandoned when their owners took flight last summer and fall. Officials report finding animals, feline and canine, roaming communities looking for food and shelter. As the natural food supply dwindles during the winter months, fears are many will starve.
Officials say the immigration law does not allow government run animal shelters to accept animals from illegal immigrants. Operators say they are required to see proof of legal residence before accepting an animal from an individual.
The immigrant could give the animal to a legal resident to surrender it to the shelter, if they can find a willing party to help.
Shelters across the state are reporting they are being impacted by the law.
In north Alabama, they are extending the hours needed to euthanize the flood of animals being brought into the Colbert County Animal Shelter. Not only are they spending extra money for the procedures to destroy animals crowding the facility, but the shelter is also paying workers overtime to keep up with the increased dog and cat population.
This problem is atop of the huge numbers of homeless and injured animals brought to shelters across the state after the April tornadoes.
The law also limits those that can adopt an animal to just those who can prove legal residence. So, if an animal owned by an undocumented immigrant is turned in at a shelter, the immigrant could not adopt it to get it back.
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