BATON ROUGE – The East Baton Rouge Companion Animal Alliance is asking for the community's help to find new homes.

The shelter has already reached capacity, meaning the animals may be on the euthanize list.

Officials say the recent influx of animals was unexpected.

"The past week we have received 211 animals., that is about 75 percent higher than last year," Jillian Sergio, outreach manager at the EBR Animal Alliance, said.

"Unfortunately our shelter only holds about 400 animals at a time, so we are at full capacity right now because we're still taking in about 30 animals a day," she said.

Sergio says being at capacity in the shelter is not good, especially for the dogs with health and behavior issues.

"This past Tuesday we got in 26 animals from a situation animal control is already investigating. So, these 26 animals are in addition to the animals we receive on a daily basis," Sergio said.

The 26 animals from the investigation are required to be kept, meaning adoptable dogs need to go.

"So this was very unexpected and unplanned so we really need to adjust some kennel space and put more in foster homes so we could make room for these animals that we will have to hold," Sergio said.

While puppies are normally adopted quickly, older dogs typically don't go as fast so the Animal Alliance has cut their older dog adoption fees in an effort to get them out of the kennels and into homes.

"Society places so much value on youth, but there are so many older dogs here that have so much love to give," Cheryl Adams, a woman who adopted a dog on Friday, said.

An additional animal shelter is in the works and will help alleviate capacity issues in the future. Construction for the new shelter is slated to begin in June on LSU's campus.

To see a daily list of adoptable dogs, click here.