YORK COUNTY, Pa. — Another event is changing its timeline as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, you'll have a lot more time to adopt a furry friend!
Steven Martinez, executive director at the York County SPCA explains, “August is National Clear the Shelter Month, so usually it’s a one-day event where we put out a lot of promotion and marketing and adopt out as many animals in a single day, but because of COVID-19 things are not normal.”
This year’s National Clear The Shelters campaign will look different. Instead of a one-day event, the national movement will last through the entire month of August.
Martinez explains, “So our goal for Clear The Shelters this month is to adopt – for cats its to adopt one cat per day, so to adopt 31 cats by August 31st, and so right now we’re at 14 cats - so we’re ahead of our goal.”
While the goal has always been to adopt out all of the animals at the shelter, this year it might actually be possible – at least with one kind of furry friend.
Martinez says, “Currently we have 7 dogs available for adoption – so only 7! That’s got to be the lowest number of dogs we’ve had ever. And so we actually have an opportunity to clear the shelter of all our dogs.”
Pint, Romeo, Pepper, Odin, Tyson, Comanche, and Paul are all wagging their tails in hopes of finding their fur-ever homes.
If puppies and kitty-cats aren’t your type of animal, the shelter has smaller fur-babies available as well!
“Guinea pigs, rabbits, and also we got in 12 rats. So if anybody out there wants to help us clear the shelter of our 12 rats – that would be great too! They’re cuter than you would think," says Martinez.
The national movement is in its 6th year, and even though shelters have had to make seemingly endless changes to their daily operations – they know the end goal is worth it.
Martinez says, “I think that because of COVID-19, instead of moving away from us, the community has embraced us and the new policies we’ve had to implement to keep the staff, volunteers, and the community safe. Our numbers are healthy numbers and so, therefore, we think it's possible to literally clear our shelter.”
In the meantime, volunteers at the shelter are making sure these sweet fur-babies are getting a little extra love and attention while they wait to find their fur-ever family.