You can make your own adoption fee this month at BARCS
BALTIMORE -- There's no catch if you want to start playing fetch -- you can name your price for adoption fees at one local animal shelter all August long.
The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, BARCS for short, said all adoption fees in any amount will be "welcomed and celebrated."
The standard adoption fee is $75, but BARCS said that whether a customer wants a free adoption or to donate $500, it's all up to them.
Bailey Deacon of BARCS told WJZ that a rush of adoptions over the pandemic is slowing down. The shelter has run out of space twice this summer.
"We had lots of people adopting during those years, it was amazing -- we would see 25 applications per dog. It was wonderful," she said. "But now 2022 is reminding us a little bit of 2019, our intake is back up to what it was in 2019. And we're just not seeing that many adopters this summer."
Deacon said reasons could be that fewer potential adopters might be in the market because of the recent rush, or that more people than ever are taking much-anticipated vacations over the summer.
She encouraged anyone interested to visit the shelter because they take in up to 35 animals a day, and not everyone is immediately on the website.
The shelter said the promotion was made possible through BARCS Board Member Joe De Francis, and Karin De Francis.
As the only open-admission shelter in Baltimore, the organization said it takes in over 10,000 animals yearly.
