If your family is looking to adopt a dog in the near future this would be a good time in the Sacramento area. Because both the Front Street Animal Shelter in Sacramento and the Sacramento County Bradshaw Animal Shelter are suffering overcrowding issues, officials at both facilities are lowering adoptions fees to just ten dollars per dog.
Janna Haynes with the Bradshaw Shelter says after swapping stories about the large number of dogs in the shelters officials decide to jointly lower their adoption fees starting with the Memorial Day weekend. "For people who are around for the, you know, it's a really good adoption weekend."
Haynes says the Bradshaw Shelter has been experiencing a ongoing overcrowding problem primarily because because dogs which might have been euthanized in the past due behavioral or health problems are often salvaged with new training techniques and a greater number of highly-skilled medical professionals willing to help. That means more dogs are available for adoption than they had just five years ago.
There are large number of so-called pit bulls available for adoption at the local shelters because people often do not realize how much care those dogs require when they grow into adults, according to Haynes. "We also have some small dogs, but mostly we have German shepherds and huskies who tend to be escape artists and get out their yard."
Haynes also says chipping your dog is the best way to ensure they will not end up in a shelter and eventually adopted out to someone else. "I would say maybe a fourth of the dogs that come in stray are chipped," she noted. "If every animal was chipped we'd be able to immediately reunify them with the owner." Otherwise, the animals shelter officials have to count on an owner's diligence in trying to find their stray dog.