Manhattan animal shelter waiving pet adoption fees
SOHO, Manhattan (PIX11) – It’s raining cats and dogs at animal shelters across the country and they need your help. They are filled to the brim because of the pandemic. And now Best Friends Lifesaving Center is waiving adoption fees to encourage you to bring a furry friend home.
Chemeeka Weldon-King and her 17-year-old daughter Zaria are clearly cat lovers. They came to Best Friends Lifesaving Center in SoHo on National Pet Adoption Weekend to see who they might add to their furry feline family.
“We have two adults but the older is 17,” said Chemeeka Weldon-King, a Morrisania resident. “We wanted to get a new friend being that I don’t know how much time I have with my 17-year-old. So maybe a new friend, maybe.”
The adoption fees for all cats and dogs over six months old at Best Friends Lifesaving Center and at other no-kill rescue groups are being waived this weekend to encourage pet adoptions because there is a crisis in animal shelters across the country caused by the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, intake is outpacing adoptions, so we are seeing that crisis,” said Best Friends Animal Society spokesperson Hannah Stember. “There are too many animals in shelters and, unfortunately, when shelters run out of space they have to kill animals because they are obligated to take in the public‘s animals,” she added.
4-month-old Roxy is the leader of a pack of four terrier mixes who just arrived from the south. She is super cuddly and affectionate and really in need of a loving forever home.
“To me, coming home to an animal-less home is depressing, Kathy Posekel, a longtime volunteer at Best Friends Lifesaving Center, told PIX11 News. “I think these guys add so much unconditional love. It’s the best. I can’t imagine not having somebody,” she added.
And neither could this couple. They thought they’d be going home with one cat, but they didn’t know it was pet adoption weekend.
So now three-year-old Justice and 3-month-old Avery are theirs.
“We got lucky with the timing. we’ve been wanting to get one for a while,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Hell’s Kitchen resident, told PIX11 News.
“We’re a little excited and surprised to bring home two today,” Addie Dinsmoor, his partner, added.
Besides Best Friends Lifesaving Center, three other local rescue groups, Kittykind, Inc., Muddy Paws Rescue and Waggytail Rescue, are also waving adoption fees July 22-24.
For more information, you can go to bestfriendsny.org