Los Angeles' city-run animal shelters reached no-kill status in 2017.

An army of unpaid volunteers have been essential in making the places run. But as the number of animals in the city's shelters have ballooned, conditions have become so poor that some are questioning the city's reliance on volunteers.

LA Times city hall reporter Dakota Smith exposed the shocking conditions inside the city's animal shelters and joined host Lisa McRee on "LA Times Today."

Smith described the influx animals that shelters are receiving.

"People who are having housing insecurity problems are having financial problems, they're bringing their pets or bringing their dogs that used to be family members because they can't afford it or maybe they can't afford a dog surgery. At the same time, the cat population is exploding right now. It's kitten season, as they say."

Some animals in shelters have contaminated food and water because they're confined to their dirty kennels all day. Volunteers are relied upon to walk the dogs. But, as Smith explained, without adequate staff, dogs can go weeks without being let outside.

"The volunteers are just saying we can't keep up. It can be, in South LA, maybe once a month, that a dog gets out for a 15-, 20-minute walk. A volunteer might bring them to the yard and the dog could run around for a little bit. The dog kennels have an outside area that they can go pee, but it's not like they can get a good amount of exercise in any way. And the volunteers started posting photos on social media and complaining about it. They really are the whistle blowers here saying we need more help, we need dogs to get exercise."

After Smith's reporting came out, there was a public outcry demanding help for shelter animals. 

"City Councilman Paul Koretz, who heads up the city committee that oversees the shelters and animal issues, held an emergency meeting, basically a town hall style meeting, to have all these people call in and talk about what they see," said Smith. "So volunteers and staff called in to talk about things like the hamsters aren't getting fed or we don't have enough staff to help adopt out the animals. And it was really eye-opening."

Smith shared some ways that people can help shelter animals.

"You can always volunteer. I know that they're getting slammed right now with volunteer applications. You can elect city officials who care about animal welfare. I think that as a society, our notions of animal welfare are changing. We see that in the state laws that are being passed to protect the animals. And I think that you can also spay and neuter your own pet. You can foster, you can adopt. So those are the sort of big picture and immediate things that members of the public can do."

Watch "LA Times Today" at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.