LAURA CLARK GETS UP AT THE crack of dawn every day, before putting on a pair of well-worn working boots and heading down to Colleton County Animal Shelter in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Clark and her team of 15 paid staff then take on the enormous task of cleaning up after, exercising, arranging veterinary care for, and feeding the more than 300 domestic animals—ranging from cats to rabbits—they’ve rescued from across their South Carolina county.
Surprisingly, there is one creature that by far outnumbers all the other animals in need residing at Clark’s shelter: dogs.
“We only have 65 permanent dog kennels. Technically, we would keep five open at all times for new dogs, so our capacity is really 60. At the moment we have 195 dogs in our care, 141 of which are at the shelter full time,” Clark, director of Colleton County Animal Shelter, told Newsweek. She added that dogs also take up half of the shelter staff ’s workload.
Indeed, Clark’s shelter has been over capacity for two years now, she said, and her
