It’s a problem without an easy solution: As the region grows, so does the issue of abandoned and stray animals.

The Bowling Green Warren County Humane Society is the organization that has to deal with that problem, and it’s one that is only getting worse.

“We can hardly keep our heads above water,” is how Humane Society head Lorri Hare described the organization’s current situation.

Fortunately, the city of Bowling Green and Warren County Fiscal Court have stepped up to help recently.

The city and county have deeded a little over three acres of land to the society’s current facility at 1925 River St.

The land will be used for an expanded spay and neuter facility – something Hare told the Daily News has been a “dream” for the Humane Society for years.

Having pets spayed and neutered is the best way to combat the influx of unwanted animals – a trend that led the Humane Society shelter to be regularly filled to capacity.

“We have people calling to get their animals in for spay, neuter, and many times throughout the year we’re eight to 12 weeks booked out,” Hare told the Daily News.

She said her organization is currently seeing around 11,000 animal intakes per year, a drastic increase from the 2,800 annual intakes when she began 25 years ago.

“We know the only way we’re going to see this problem start to decrease is to start doing more spay/neuter,” Hare said. “We can’t adopt our way or rescue our way out of it. We’ve got to get that population under control.”

Hare said the next step after the land donation is planning to begin some “really aggressive grant writing” to fund the expansion. This process, she said, would realistically take around three years.

“We know that it’s going to be a lot of fundraising, a lot of work, a lot of research,” she said. “this will be the last addition we ever do, so we want it to be great, we want it to be state of the art, we want it to be efficient for the next 20 years.”

We applaud the city and county for stepping up with the land donation.

We also urge all pet owners to have their animals spayed and neutered, and remind anyone seeking a new pet that they should consider adopting rather than purchasing one.