LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — Pasco County Animal Services has waived adoption fees through the end of the month. Currently, the animal shelter has about 120 dogs and 30 cats on site.
All pets are spayed/neutered, vaccinated and microchipped prior to adoption.
Pasco County Animal Services assistant director Spencer Conover said the shelter might be a stressful situation for some dogs and cats.
"Our intake numbers are actually lower than pre-COVID," he said. "What we're noticing is, with inflation and the economy, less people are adopting, less people are rescuing animals, so animals are leaving at a lower rate than they were pre-pandemic."
The shelter's goal is to clear out the kennels.
"When there's less animals here in the kennels, overall, they get more individual attention," Conover said. "They can get walked more often for the dogs. They can get more enrichment for the cats. So we see less animals getting sick."
Conover said that pre-pandemic, the shelter saw less than 50 dogs onsite.
"Even 2021, early 2022, we were seeing between 70-100 dogs, and now when we creep up on over that 100 dog mark and over 50 cat mark, we're starting to see more than we can care for on-site comfortably," he continued. "Obviously, we're never full. We're always going to find positive outcomes for our animals."
Adoption fees are waived through the end of the month, but people must pay a county license fee. The fee is $10 for dogs and $5 for cats.
For more information on pets available for adoption, visit their website.
