A local animal shelter is overcapacity and understaffed. The South Bend Animal Resource Center is warning dog owners that leaving your pet outside can be a matter of life and death.

"It puts more stress on our staff and with us already being short-staffed as it is. It makes it ten times harder when there is an influx in animals. And we just wish that everybody would come in and reclaim their pet, adopt or foster, volunteer, anything helps," says SBARC Animal Welfare Officer Grace Fuller.

The local shelter is begging the community to be responsible pet owners.

"Their dogs should have adequate dog houses as well as straw bedding inside as well as the outside area that they are walking in. They should have heated water dishes as well as food provided to them at all times," says Fuller.

Neighbors reach out to SBARC when they notice pets are left outdoors with frozen water bowls, a lack of food, or chained up and without shelter. Fuller encourages anyone to report unsafe situations to SBARC. When temperatures drop, the urgency to avoid a deadly situation increases.

If it is 30 degrees or below, the animal just needs to come inside.

Fuller says stray cats that live outdoors are more resourceful in the winter, but you can help.

"If you have stray cats in your neighborhood we do have free outside cat houses that can be provided with straw inside them," says Fuller. "If you don't feel like feeding them you don't have to, but it also helps as well with having food and water for them as well so that way they can survive throughout the winter."

Fuller recommends the foster to adopt program for potential pet parents who would like to eventually provide a forever home. This allows you to decide if a particular dog or cat is a good fit for your family.