AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Thanks to city commissioners, the animals at Amarillo Animal Control will be getting some toys to keep them entertained.
After touring the shelter to learn more about animal control, the commissioners were pleased with everything they saw except the lonely animals.
"We asked as city commissioners if we could have our friends who love animals have some kind of toy drive for then animals," Amarillo City Commissioner Ellen Robertson-Green said. "So, we passed the word along and, Eureka! A lot of people are responding and there's a big drive going on right now."
Green's friend Jena McFall loves animals and has taken it upon herself to start a Facebook page for the cause, Kong Drive for Amarillo Animal Control Shelter.
"If you can imagine that you've been picked up off the street, you've been put in a kennel, you're on a concrete floor, there are 200 other dogs barking and you've got to be stressed out and lonely and scared," McFall said. "And this is just something to take the stress away from them and help them become more adoptable."
Kong toys are said to be indestructible and can be sterilized, which is necessary for them to be used in the shelter. They can also be filled with peanut butter as an extra treat. But Amarillo Animal Control Assistant Director Shannon Barlow said putting toys in the kennels can also be a bad thing.
"We'll play with it a little bit and see, you know, probably start with one group first and then kind of see how they do and see what kind of response we get," Barlow said. "We don't want to start fights and we don't want them to, sometimes they struggle over territory."
To donate Kong toys and/or peanut butter, 'like' the Facebook page and it will tell you how and where.
Barlow pointed out the shelter can always use towels, blankets and dog houses, as well.
