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REIDSVILLE - The clock is ticking on Monty and Vail, twin tabbies at the Rockingham County Animal Shelter.

The cats have long since passed the shelter's 72-hour mandatory hold time.

But shelter director René Jackson is convinced she can find a home for them. Their pictures are listed for adoption online, and hold tags have been attached to their cages, sparing them from lethal injection for just a little while longer.

"Can't save 'em all, but I can try," Jackson said.

The fact is, four of every five animals that passed through the shelter during the third quarter of last year were put to death. The euthanasia rate has spiked as high as 98 percent in recent years.

The increase in euthanizations is coupled with an increase in the number of animals the shelter is taking in. The economy is one factor. More people are abandoning and surrendering their animals because they can no longer afford to care for them.

Rockingham County's answer to the problem is a new $1.7 million shelter it hopes to open in early 2010. Ideally, it would have more space, an adoption center, isolation space to separate the sick animals from the healthy, and a spay and neuter clinic.

County officials call it their dream shelter. But the reality is that more than half of the shelter's costs must be raised through private donations. A six-month campaign that began in October has raised only about $60,000.

An animal control officer drops off a black German shepherd mix. Another dog follows. Two more after that. A wild cat tops off this round of deliveries.

"René, where do you want him?" volunteer Crystal Saldana asks Jackson about the first dog.

"Wherever you can put him," Jackson says. "Good luck."

Calling this place a shelter is putting it nicely. The cat room doubles as a lobby and a euthanasia room for the dogs. The dog area is so narrow that paws sticking through cages almost graze visitors as they walk by. Three or four dogs often share one cage. Jackson's office serves as a supply room for barrels and bags of animal food.

For more than 15 years, Rockingham County has rented holding space from Reidsville Veterinary Hospital. The county paid $117,500 for the space this year.

But the hospital plans to open at a new location by the end of 2010 and has said it will not offer the county shelter space there.

Rockingham's leaders have pledged $800,000 toward a new facility on about 7 acres in Wentworth.

"What the county can afford to build is a really nice, new (basic) shelter that will hold four times the animals that the current facility's holding," said Julie Swanner, who is managing the county's fundraising campaign.

But what the county can afford and what it needs are two separate issues. A basic shelter won't support the steady stream of animals the shelter takes in daily or lower the county's animal population, animal welfare advocates say.

Providing low-cost spaying and neutering and educating pet owners about the importance of the procedures is the only way to keep the county's animal population down, Swanner said.

Money has trickled in: $25 here, $50 there. The campaign received a boost in early January when a Reidsville couple pledged $50,000.

"We want to be able to hold the animals longer there. We want to give them a chance," Swanner said. "We just know that we need so much more than a basic shelter to really solve the problem long-term."

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It's decision day at the Rockingham shelter - the semiweekly ritual when shelter staff members must decide which animals to euthanize.

Two female cats, both considered wild, along with a gray and black cat with "will bolt" written on its intake tag, are among those likely to be euthanized the next day. A black check mark across their tags distinguishes them from those that will be spared.

Euthanizations by lethal injection take place on Tuesdays and Fridays .

A sedative is administered to the dogs in cat food, a last meal that's considered a special treat . The dogs are given another hour for it to work through their systems before the animal control officers arrive, pull them from their cages and administer the fatal doses.

Death is almost instant. The county landfill becomes their final resting place.

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When it comes to high animal populations, Rockingham County isn't alone in its suffering.

Shelters across the Piedmont are struggling with an influx of animals during a time when some families can barely feed themselves, much less a pet.

More often than not, county-run shelters euthanize more animals than they adopt out, said Mimi Cooper, director of the Randolph County Health Department, which oversees that county's animal shelter.

"We're the last resort," Cooper said. "We don't have the ability to close our door and say, 'We're full.' "

During the fiscal year ending in June 2008, the Randolph shelter adopted out 545 animals, Cooper said. It euthanized 5,869.

The number of animals needing refuge at the shelter has increased in the past six to eight months, she said.

Like Rockingham, Randolph needs a new shelter. But Cooper said county officials have put those plans on hold because of the economic crisis.

Alamance County saw an increase in adoptions last year, said Tamee Penley, supervisor of Burlington Animal Services, which consists of a shelter and adoption center run by the city of Burlington. Unfortunately, she said, the number of strays taken in, animals surrendered by their owners and those euthanized also have gone up.

Last year, the shelter took in 8,834 animals and euthanized 6,432, Penley said. In 2007, the shelter took in 8,603 animals and euthanized 6,067.

"It's great news that our adoptions are up 9 percent, but overall we're up all the way around," she said.

The city opened an adoption facility next to the shelter in 2004, Penley said. "This gave us more space to put more (animals) up for adoption and a place to do surgery," she said.

To help keep animal numbers down, Penley said, her staff has tried to improve efforts to educate families about spaying and neutering when they adopt. There has been talk about starting a public spay and neuter program, she said, possibly a mobile clinic. Much like everything else, that effort has stalled because of economic constraints.

Marsha Williams, director of the Guilford County Animal Shelter, said that shelter took in nearly 14,000 dogs and cats in 2007, the most recent year for which information was available. Roughly half of those animals were adopted or returned to their owners. About 46 percent were euthanized.

The shelter works closely with rescue groups, animal welfare groups and the public to move animals into permanent homes, Williams said.

"We are doing a lot of work with adoption fairs, working with other organizations and civic groups to promote our animals," she said.

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The hardest part, Jackson says, is deciding which dogs must die. There are just so many that could be adopted.

Jackson, who is new to her job as shelter director, has assisted with euthanizations but has yet to perform them.

That's fine by her. She admits she sometimes ignores her superiors' rule about holding animals for too long.

"Killing animals for a living isn't the way to go," said Jackson, who is also a veterinary technician. "I want to keep the euthanizations down as much as possible. I really want to get them a home."

Not a surprising outlook for a lifelong animal lover who knew in fourth grade that she'd one day work with animals.

Jackson's first dog was a birthday gift from her aunt, a veterinarian, when she turned 6. The red Australian shepherd named Taz became her shadow. Then there were her cat Puddy Tat, and Monty, the ball python she owned in high school.

Jackson doesn't pick favorites, but on this day, she can't keep her hands off Sammy, who is recuperating after being hit by a car.

While Jackson checks Sammy's mouth for injuries, his neighbor reaches his paw through the cage and lightly touches her arm.

"This one head-butted me when I petted him, so I call him Toro, " Jackson said of the tiger-striped cat.

They all have names.

There's Capone . From the looks of his scratched-up nose, Jackson assumes he's seen his share of fights. But he's friendly, and she believes someone might look at those scratches, feel sorry for him and want to take him home.

And there's Charlie, a stray Lab-shepherd mix who came to the shelter with a rope grown into his neck. He's recovering after surgery at the veterinary hospital, and he eagerly vies for Jackson's attention whenever she enters the dog room.

Charlie is tempting to Jackson, who already owns two cats and shares a black Lab with her mother.

"He's a good dog," she said. "He's a very nice dog, and I can't say that enough."

Eventually, someone agrees with her and takes Charlie home.

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Even if the money is not yet there for a new shelter, the interest is.

Amelia Dallas , chairwoman of the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners, said she has had her share of e-mails, phone calls and chats in the grocery store aisle since the county announced it planned to build a new shelter.

"They're saying, 'I wish we had done this a long time ago,' " Dallas said.

The commissioners did their homework when planning for the new shelter, visiting those in Cumberland, Moore and Sampson counties, among others.

"You get an interesting perspective of how it's all done, and once you've seen a few, you start to get a sense of a well-run shelter," said Adam Lindsay, Rockingham County's budget and performance manager.

But Lindsay, who has done much of the legwork on the shelter plans, says a six-month campaign is not a lot of time to raise $900,000. That timeline is compounded by the economy, he said.

But the county has a Plan B. In December, the commissioners approved Lindsay's recommendation to build the shelter in two phases.

Phase one would be a basic shelter to house animals. Phase two would include amenities, such as an adoption area, that could be added once enough funds are raised.

The Animal Protection Society of Rockingham County has partnered with the county to help raise awareness for a new shelter and supports the current one with volunteers.

Vice president Patty Scott estimates she spends at least two hours a day making phone calls and sending e-mails on behalf of the shelter.

"We're not just in it from the day that the shelter opens," Scott said. "We're in it for the long haul."

Dallas said this type of community cooperation is key in getting the shelter built.

"When a subject like this is publicized so much and talked about, then people begin to sit up and take notice," she said.

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What has been a slow day at the shelter picks up around late morning. Officers drop off animal after animal. As if sensing their fate, all of the animals resist being brought inside.

But none more so than the golden brown Lab mix that bolts as its owners attempt to deliver her to the shelter. Once caught, the man holds the dog by its front legs to calm it while his female companion completes a form releasing custody to the shelter.

The woman tells Jackson the dog tears up too much trash.

"I just have too many dogs as it is," she says.

The dog has most of its vaccinations, she tells Jackson. And the dog loves children.

The woman kisses the dog and whispers that maybe someone with a fenced yard and lots of little kids will provide it with a place to live.

"I'll do my best to get her a home," Jackson says.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com