MONTROSE, Pa. — Inside True Friends Animal Welfare Center you'll find 78 animals.
Volunteers say they are normally not full and have 50 to 60 animals.
Workers say they're struggling to keep the shelter open.
"Really, we don't have the ability like with staffing and with space to take in any more animals at the moment," said Melanie Harvey, True Friends AWC Shelter Manager.
True Friends Awc Board of Directors VP Amy Uggiano says she and another board member are at the shelter every day.
They don't receive a penny from the shelter and even take money out of their own savings accounts to keep up with the bills.
"It sucks your life away trying to worry about the animals, where they're going to go, how we're going to feed them, pay the vet bills, pay the staff, get volunteers in, who we can't help," Ugginao said.
For two years, the shelter received a $50,000 grant from the county.
Workers say they thought it was an annual gift written in county code, but they were wrong.
"We were shocked, really disappointed, and quite frankly frightened for this shelter," Uggiano said.
County commissioners say though county code allows the county to gift money for animal control, it's not required year after year.
"We gifted them $50,000 two years in a row. We told them at that time that it was not going to be a yearly event," said Elizabeth Arnold, Susquehanna County Commissioner.
Arnold says it wasn't in the budget this year.
"We just put up a new safety building, and we have other things going on," she said.
Commissioners have questioned the way the shelter is being run recently.
"I don't know what they're doing for fundraising now. Like I haven't seen things on Facebook and advertising," Arnold said.
Amy Uggiano says it's not that simple.
"We have no help. I am here as a board member almost every day walking dogs in the rain, in the heat with COVID, and with the economy the way it is and the lack of staff and volunteers, how much can we do," she said.
Workers at true friends say, for now, the shelter is relying on emergency savings.
To donate to the shelter, CLICK HERE.
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