PHOENIX (AZFamily) — If you’re looking to add a new fur baby to your family, there are hundreds of dogs in Phoenix-area shelters that can use your help!
Officials are calling the shelter situation “dire.” Between the Arizona Humane Society and Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, there are almost 2,000 dogs in need of loving homes, as well as more in need of foster care.
AHS spokesperson Joe Casados said the shelter is beyond maximum capacity. He said the humane society has about 1,000 dogs in kennels, which is 150 more than at the same time last year, and the most at the shelter at one time in over a decade.
Casados said there are also 630 dogs currently in foster homes and another 100 in need of foster homes.
Dogs Available For Adoption at Arizona Humane Society
Dogs Available For Adoption at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control
“This kennel space crisis is not a new trend,” Casados said. “Our dogs over 50 pounds are staying longer in our shelter than ever before. Our Ethical No-Kill Philosophy means that we never euthanize due to space or length of stay. Some of our pets have been here for more than 100 days and are still waiting to be adopted, which means we have less kennel space open to bring in new pets in need.”
Casados said adoption, fostering and spay/neutering are badly needed right now, particularly ahead of the Fourth of July when record numbers of pets go missing. Because the shelters have no more space, he urged Valley dog owners to stay with their pets this holiday season.
There are a few measures AHS is taking to help free kennel space:
- All big dogs (over 50 pounds) have waived adoption fees indefinitely.
- The “Adopt Today, Take Home Tomorrow” program, which allows visitors to the shelter to see and adopt pets who are just waiting for their spay/neuter surgery before they can be taken home.
- We recently started a “Snip Snip Hooray, Take Home Today!” program that will allow visitors to look through photos of pets who are receiving their spay/neuter surgery that day. Those pets can then be adopted allowing them to go home right after surgery so that an adoption kennel is not needed.
In addition to the dogs available at AHS, officials at MCACC are also sounding the alarm for help. Spokesperson Kim Powell said MCACC has 814 dogs in shelters as of Tuesday morning, which is about 200 more than capacity.
From now until Sunday, AHS will waive adoption fees for all dogs, including for puppies! All dogs will go home spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
