Front Street Animal Shelter's free pet adoption for holidays is almost over
Bring on the jingle bells and wagging tails, Front Street Animal Shelter is waiving adoption fees leading up to Christmas. Families can still adopt a furry friend for free at the Front Street Animal Shelter through December 23.
The shelter launched their campaign out of necessity, announcing at the start of December that they were beyond maximum capacity and had to resort to housing dogs in their offices.
Ryan Hinderman, the communications manager at Front Street Animal Shelter, said they had a total of about 650 animals in their care.
"Most dogs that can be paired safely with other dogs have been paired and so there's literally no additional room to maintain humane and safe conditions for the animals," Hinderman said.
Since the start of their promotion on Dec. 9, they have been able to adopt out 300 animals. However, recent storms brought in an additional influx.
The shelter said adopting now can save people more than just the adoption fee.
"Every animal that gets adopted will be fixed, vaccinated and microchipped," Hinderman said. "It's amazing because all of those things if you were to get a pet for free somewhere else and get that done, that would be between $500 and $1,00o. When you adopt, you can get all of that for what's normally a low adoption fee but currently no adoption fee at all."
As they work to clear the kennels, they're asking good Samaritans for a hand when it comes to lost dogs.
"If you're able to hold onto that dog even for a couple of days before bringing them into the shelter, there's a really good chance you could find the owner before they even need to come in and pack our shelter population," Hinderman said.
They shared the following tips if you find a lost dog:
- Get the dog scanned for a microchip at a veterinary office or shelter
- Make a found pet posting on Nextdoor, Craigslist, PawBoost and lost and found pet Facebook pages
- Walk the dog around the neighborhood. Most dogs are found close to home, so asking neighbors if they know who the dog belongs to could go a long way
- Upload the dog's photo to Petco Love Lost, a free facial recognition tool that will make it easy for the pet's owner to find the dog on the platform
- File a pet report at 24PetWatch and Pawboost
- Post colorful "Found Dog" flyers at the busiest intersections within a 1-mile radius of where the dog was found.
"That would be our Christmas miracle to make some space and make some really lucky families with these awesome pets," Hinderman said.
