Events Aim to Ease Overcrowding at Pasco Pet Shelter

Pet lovers hoping to bring a new four-legged friend home in time for summer will find Pasco County Animal Services is offering a number of events designed to help them do so for less.

“We are way over capacity,” explained Andrea Ciesluk, the agency’s education coordinator. “Adoptions have slowed down and new strays are coming in every day due to people not spaying/neutering their pets or micro-chipping them.”

Ciesluk reports that capacity levels change every day at the 19640 Dogpatch Lane shelter in Land O’ Lakes. With late spring and early summer being the peak of “kitten season,” the agency is offering half-off cat adoptions throughout the month of June and $5 Feline Fridays all month, as well.

Cats, however, aren’t the shelter’s biggest concern.

“Most of the cats get adopted pretty quickly, especially since it is kitten season and we get a lot of kittens,” Ciesluk said. “Right now we are having trouble getting the dogs out and into good homes.”

That’s why Animal Services is playing host to an adoption event June 13. Dubbed the “Name Your Price” pet adoption event, the special promotion takes place from noon until 4 p.m. at the Land O’ Lakes shelter.

Since the event is still a few weeks away, however, officials are hoping folks will stop by sooner.

“We are out of space and are hoping that many of them (dogs) will get adopted before or during the event,” Ciesluk said.

The agency’s offering half-price dog adoptions in June and will have its mobile Tail Wagon adoption bus out on June 6 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Land O’ Lakes Library, June 13 at the shelter and June 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Wiregrass Mall’s Fresh Market.

For more information about Pasco County Animal Services, visit its website.

Patch file photo

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