The Center for Animal Rescue and Enrichment has extended its contract with St. Louis for another year, but shelter officials said the money isn’t enough to cover day-to-day operations.
The contract extension means the shelter has stable funding for next year, but money is limited, said Elisa Bauer, CARE STL’s community outreach director.
“Limited resources are our biggest problem,” said Bauer. “It costs a lot of money to run an animal shelter and our day-to-day operations are expensive.”
Bauer said the total contract is about $1 million. The shelter signed it earlier this month.
Charlotte Keene
/
St. Louis Public Radio
The exterior of St. Louis’ Center for Animal Rescue and Enrichment in Midtown on July 16
Bauer said the contract extension was nerve-wracking and involved a lot of back and forth with the city. She said if the contract wasn’t renewed, the shelter would still exist, but it would be under a different organization.
“It’s scary because we’ve seen in the past that this has included a lot of euthanasia,” Bauer said.
Charlotte Keene
/
St. Louis Public Radio
The dogs will be available for adoption July 16 at St. Louis’ Center for Animal Rescue and Enrichment in Midtown
The money in the contract was only enough for workers’ salaries, Bauer said, and fundraisers and donors covered most of the costs of running the shelter.
“There are months when you can really feel the strain of running a shelter with limited resources and few people,” Bauer said.
CARE STL took over the city’s animal shelter in 2019 when the shelter’s euthanasia rate was 55%. Because it is a municipal animal shelter, CARE STL is required by the city to accept all animals brought in from animal control.
“No matter what animal it is, no matter what time of day or night, we have an open intake for animal control,” Bauer said.
The shelter has about 70 kennels, Bauer said, but in recent months the shelter has housed up to 100 dogs at times.
Charlotte Keene
/
St. Louis Public Radio
One of the dogs available for adoption July 16 at St. Louis’ Center for Animal Rescue and Enrichment in Midtown
“Sometimes we are heavily overloaded and that costs even more money,” said Bauer. “It’s difficult when you’re trying to help so many animals and you just don’t have the resources to do it.”
According to Bauer, even if the animal shelter is overloaded, dogs are only euthanized if they are considered dangerous, not for reasons of space.
She said the Lifesavers program helps dogs in desperate need of leaving the shelter.
Dogs added to the Lifesavers program have 40 days to find a home and an additional 15 day extension if needed. After the deadline, Bauer said CARE STL had to euthanize the dog.
Dogs may be added to the list of lifesavers based on their behavior, length of stay, or deterioration in quality of life.
“Some dogs come with extreme urgency and some develop this behavior over time because they are here too long,” Bauer said.
Bauer said the shelter tries to create an environment where every dog that comes in has a positive outcome, but she said more foster homes, adopters and volunteers are needed.
But that’s not the only urgent reason why the animal shelter wants to give dogs away.
On Monday, the air conditioning failed and the shelter pleaded with St. Louis residents to foster or adopt dogs to get them out of the hot building.
“Given today’s dangerous temperatures, we need to get as many dogs out of the building as possible while emergency repairs are made,” the organization’s Facebook post said. “The quickest way to help is to foster or adopt. Every dog that leaves the house today means one less dog in the building while we have no air conditioning.”
https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-07-21/care-stl-extends-contract-st-louis-money
