KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hundreds of dogs with limited space continues to be an ongoing issue at KC Pet Project, where there are more dogs than kennels right now.

The issue is so dire that the shelter said it considered euthanasia over the holiday weekend despite being a no-kill shelter. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that as 100 dogs were adopted during the shelter’s Memorial Day Weekend adoption event.

“We have, in our shelter, around 140 kennels. We have 250 dogs,” said Tori Fugate with KC Pet Project. That’s a big problem with 40 to 60 new pets arriving at the facility every single day. “As an open admission shelter, we can’t say no.”

On Friday, the shelter put an emergency alert online, saying in part, “We’re facing very difficult euthanasia decisions if we do not find placement for 150 dogs this Memorial Day weekend. We are heartbroken that this is where we are, but we are out of options.”

“As a no-kill shelter, which we still are, that doesn’t ever mean we don’t have to euthanize. We do have to make difficult decisions sometimes,” added Fugate. Still, KC Pet Project is on track to take in 16,000 animals this year, well above the 10,000 it took in before the new building opened in 2020.

Fugate said big dogs are the most difficult to adopt , since fewer homes are available to them.

As FOX4 walked around the main building, we noticed many of the bigger dogs have some pit in them, which can be tricky since many apartment complexes and HOA’s prohibit them as well as other breeds deemed aggressive.

“We’re hearing from residents that have not had housing restrictions in the past for large dogs that are now being told they can’t have them anymore,” Fugate said.

KC Pet Project said less than 30% of the dogs it takes in are labeled pit bull-type dogs, but those tend to stay longer since other breeds get adopted much quicker.

To try to get more dogs into good homes, the shelter recently initiated “Waived Fee Wednesdays,” which will happen for the foreseeable future. However, it only applies to dogs weighing more than 20 pounds who are at least six months old.