(Director José) When a dog especially arrives here at the shelter, most of the time they're coming from a home.

And then they come into this place where it's very loud.

There's a lot of strangers.

There's people walking by their crates and kennels every single day, so imagine it from their point of view, they're scared.

They're fearful and sometimes that becomes a very stressful time for them.

In Miami-Dade County, we've made a commitment to being a no-kill shelter and that means that we're only going to euthanize if a pet is injured, is a behavioral concern, has been proven to be aggressive or is suffering for some reason and that is a commitment that we take very seriously.

So the Doral facility was built in 2016 and it was built to house 350 dogs and about 100 cats.

Today, we have 658 dogs in our population plus over, a little over a 100 cats.

The reason why we're using the Medley facility is because we're overpopulated here at Doral.

We have about 150 dogs now living at the Medley facility.

There's approximately a 100 dogs that come in stray from the field weekly and then an additional 20 or 30 that come in "over the counter", we call that, which is that they come here to the facility and say that they can no longer care for this pet or they found it, but that 100 to 130 dogs that are coming in weekly is what's making us reach this overcrowded situation.

So the number one thing you can do if you're a pet owner is spay or neuter your pet.

[Dr. Serrano] We have a low-cost spay neuter program at the shelter, so spaying and neutering is not only super important for population control, so we have a lot of unwanted litters and we don't have enough homes for the litters or the puppies that we produce.

But not only for that reason, but because dogs and cats that are sterilized are scientifically known that they live longer and healthy lives.

The veterinary care that we offer for the public is wellness services, so it's vaccines and microchipping.

The microchip is super important.

It is the best way to reunite you with your pet.

Very important to make sure that people register their microchips and if you move or if you change your phone number, to make sure that that is updated.

[Director José] We try to put as many resources into the community as possible, so if someone comes to surrender their pet, we ask them why?

What's going on?

How can we help you?

If it's that they need help with food or a deposit for a new place that they're going to live, we're going to try to make that happen, so that they can stay with their pet.

What we tell everyone is that a shelter is not a place for pets.

They belong in a home, which is why we ask the community please use the shelter as your last resort.

It's not just difficult on staff and volunteers that come here, but the dogs really do suffer.

It's a very stressful environment to be in a shelter facility.

It's loud, it's cold, they're in little kennels.

They get out once, hopefully twice a day, but more realistically, only once a day due to the number of dogs we We have volunteers who come any time during our working hours.

That's 7 days a week and walk dogs or you can be a kitten cuddler or just play with our cats and promote every pet on social media.

A typical day for a volunteer is coming in with a positive attitude to help our shelter pets in need.

They have assignments that assist them like dog walking, cat enrichment, dog bathing, pet photography.

There's so much to do here.

[John] We'll take them out to the play yard and do a little photo session with each dog.

They get some treats, they get to run around, get some fresh air and hopefully we try to capture a little bit of their personalities.

Right now clearly, there is an overpopulation crisis in the shelter and the dogs and cats here need all the help they can get.

Even if it's just getting out of the shelter temporarily for a little while on a PawVenture or going into a foster home.

There's just so many animals that need help here.

It's overwhelming and any little thing that people can do to help makes a big difference.

So today, me and my friend, we checked out Matteo for a PawVenture.

With Matteo today, we went to the dog park.

We went to Starbucks and we got him a puppuccino, but overall we've had a really nice day and it's nice to see that we can do this experience.

We thought it'd be a longer process to like get an animal out, but I see like how easy it is, so we can just come back and check any animal out that we want.

[Sadie] Some misconceptions people may have about volunteering at an animal shelter is that it is a very depressing role or a depressing job.

When in fact, it's actually very rewarding.

We play a vital role in providing joy to these animals even for just a small amount of time.

[Joy] If you're interested in volunteering, just do it.

I hear so many people who say, "Oh, I couldn't do it.

It's too sad.

I'd want to take them all home."

Come, we need your help.

We need volunteers to be able to socialize with these animals and you'll be so happy that you did.

[Marcela] There are many many ways to help: volunteering, adopting, fostering, sharing on social media, donations.

There's many, many ways, but I think the most important thing is that the community understands it is a community issue.

It's not a shelter issue.

[Joy] Volunteering is such a powerful, powerful thing that you can do and it's so, it's so rewarding to know that you made a difference in these animals' lives and even though it feels like there's so many dogs, the difference that you make in one of those dogs lives goes so far in helping them get adopted and hopefully find their forever home.

[Director José] If you come and adopt, you have give that dog some time.

Three days just to get used to the environment he's in, then three weeks to start coming out of his shell and then three months is when he really starts to feel like okay, I can trust this new home I'm at.

By the way that's the same for cats.

They're going to go and hide and you may not see them for a few days when you first adopt them, but eventually they'll become more sociable and become part of your family.

It's the 3-3-3 rule.

One of my three dogs I adopted recently, I would say four months ago.

He's a senior dog.

He was kind of injured.

He was assigned, you know, to my room, even though that I don't work in the geriatric section.

They didn't have space.

He ended up with me and he was an owner surrender, 10 years old.

He started being very depressed, very, very depressed to the point he wasn't eating and he was terribly crying the whole So I developed a relationship with him.

I gained his trust.

Long story short, I took him in foster because I knew he was not going to make it and I adopted him and he's the best senior dog ever.

I cannot stress enough the importance of not only the viewers but the whole community at large to support your local shelter and the involvement of the community is very important, not only in donations or your time and also supporting the mission that we do by not buying but fostering and adopting.

[Marcela] Paw.

Paw Again.

Yes!

[Director José] Given that we have such an overpopulation crisis and over 650 dogs here at the shelter, the most compassionate thing that the community can do is come and adopt from the shelter.

I know that the pet boutiques have a lot of fluffy and boutique-looking dogs, but shelter dogs are, many of them are trained.

Many of them were used to being part of a family.

Here at the shelter, they become depressed and anxious and it's really not a place for them to be long term, so please help us get that length of stay for dogs down to no more than 2 weeks and that means coming and adopt from here and giving a dog another chance of life.

You're really going to be a hero for that dog.

You're saving a life.

It's really the biggest contribution you could do for a pet.