TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — The Pike Animal Shelter is urging people to adopt before the shelter has no other choice but to begin euthanizing.

“We do have a policy in place we can keep animals for 120 days as long as we have the space,” said Pike Animal Shelter member Teresa Cobb. “Who’s ever been here the longest. We go by the timetable.”

Case, a male healer mix, is the longest resident of the Pike Animal Shelter, meaning he is one of the dogs who is most at risk. According to Cobb, the shelter does not have a set number of dogs it can take because there are many kennels of various sizes.

“The problem arises when there are too many bigger dogs that cannot fit in the smaller kennels,” Cobb explained. “Unfortunately that’s mainly what we get and we get mostly pit mix, Bulldog mix.”

As the shelter works to care for and protect the animals in its care, Cobb urges animal owners to take responsibility for their own animals.

“We tell everybody spay and neute,” Cobb said. “A lot of people adopt or they have animals at home and they don’t think about having the animal spay or neuter. If your animal gets out and hooks up with another animal, that contributes to the population.”

For more information about the Pike Animal Shelter, visit its Facebook page.