Wake animal center dog flu outbreak leads to rescues being overrun with owner surrenders

Dozens of dogs have the virus and four have died.

And with the shelter closing, people have no where to surrender their animals or drop off stray dogs. That means local animal rescues are stepping up.

Animal rescues kind of fill the gap. They can pull from shelters, they can also accept owner surrenders.

These are four of 15 pups born into a rescue. And right now, rescues are already filled to capacity.

"It's the worst I've ever seen," Kincaid said.

Kincaid said she is seeing a record number of owner surrenders and owners trying to give their dogs away.

"We're also seeing a ton of free pets on social media sites, like Claus," Kincaid said.

"We have to turn away a lot more than I would really, really like but again its based on the foster base and with all of our fosters completely full we unfortunately just can't take it," Matthews said.

Rescues like Matthews' often focus on helping dogs with medical or behavioral issues, which can be hard to place.

Ashley Williams with the Wake County Animal Center says rescues are the only chance some dogs have to leave the shelter alive.

"So 30% of our live releases are going to our rescue partners," Williams said. "So we're talking thousands of animals."

With the shelter closed and rescues full, Matthews said she's worried.

"It's going to lead to a lot of dog deaths," Matthews said. "Especially with the cold weather out there with people just dumping their dogs outside."

And local rescues say they need more rescues to save more dogs.

"it's the only way we're going to be able to help right now with what's going on," Kincaid said.