PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Animals in nearly 400 shelters throughout the country may get a loving home for the holidays thanks to a nonprofit’s funding for adoption fees.
Animal shelters in 43 states, participating in the Bissell Pet Foundation’s Empty the Shelters Holiday Hope event, are asked to select one day between Dec. 1 and Dec. 17 when they will charge a reduced adoption fee from $0 to $50.
For example, the Pennsylvania SPCA has chosen to offer no-cost adoptions on Dec. 9.
“Bissell allows for a large variation within that kind of idea of what shelters want to do with their promotion,” said Nicole Wilson, PSPCA’s director of Humane Law Enforcement and Shelter Operations.”
“And since the PSPCA wants to do a free event with Bissell sponsorship, we are concentrating it to that one day, because we find that it is the most effective with getting people out and getting animals placed in homes.”
Wilson says the funding could not have come at a better time, noting they nearly doubled the number of dogs they brought in through law enforcement efforts this year.
“And that was in comparison to last year, which was an over-decade high for us. So it’s definitely been a challenging year when it comes to just the number of animals coming into the shelter and then finding places for them within the community.”
Other participating shelters include ACCT Philly, Morris Animal Refuge, Main Line Animal Rescue and the Providence Animal Center.