Lillington, N.C.— Harnett County Animal Services is waiving its pet adoption fees for the next several days in an effort to reduce the animals in its shelter population without euthanizing any animals.

Shelter officials said the facility is at capacity for dogs and nearing capacity for cats. The full house is preventing the shelter from filling the backlog of other requests to house animals.

Interim Assistant County Manager Brian Haney said the shelter took in 11 dogs on Thursday from 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. There are another 19 dogs waiting to be picked up.

Haney said the shelter has reached out to rescue groups to try to alleviate the capacity crowd, but the groups are also full. Some of the dogs at the shelter have been there for more than three weeks, but the facility can’t sustain the load much longer.

“Euthanasia is absolutely the last resort in terms of reducing the shelter population to accommodate this backlog, but unfortunately sometimes it is necessary, especially in a public shelter that is required to take animals in regardless of capacity issues,” Haney said in an email.

Haney said there is no firm deadline for when dogs must be taken out of the shelter, and officials want as many animals adopted as possible.

The adoption fee waiver lasts through Tuesday, Nov. 21.