Michelle Middleton loves animals, and she says she knew volunteering at the Lee County Domestic Animal Shelter would be difficult.
“Their little faces haunt us at night, so I’m there because I do give the dogs a lot of love,” Middleton says.
She’s part of the local group Animal Justice.
During Middleton’s time at the shelter, she says she and other volunteers saw things that concerned them.
For example, how often dogs get out of their kennel to use the bathroom.
She gave Lee County Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades a stack of papers that she says is how volunteers tracked how often the dogs are let outside of their kennels.
It shows most dogs are let out once every 23 or 24 hours and in some cases, once in 25 hours.
Middleton says, “Due to a lack of staff members and volunteers, the dogs have to relieve themselves in their kennels and then be stuck there for sometimes almost an entire day before someone’s able to clean it.”
Watch Lee County Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below: