'Worth The Wait' Valentine's Adoption Event Waives Fees For All Extended-Stay Pets: MSPCA-Angell

SALEM, MA — The MSPCA-Angell is holding a historic all-pet, fee-free adoption event for Valentine's Day for all shelter animals whose stays have extended 30 days or longer.

It marks the first time ever in its more than 150-year history that the MSPCA-Angell has suspended fees for all species in a single event.

"The majority of our events in the past year have focused on dogs, which makes sense given the capacity challenges we and our shelter partners often have," said Jamie Garabedian, project manager in the MSPCA-Angell’s Animal Protection Division. "That's still a reality, but recently — whether through Law Enforcement activity, owner surrender, or out-of-state transport — we've also seen more variety of animals come through our doors, and capacity across the board is tight."

The event comes as a transport from a Philadelphia shelter on Tuesday was doubled to alleviate capacity in that shelter.

"Given that we always want to have the space and ability to answer the call whenever animals need help, we thought it made sense to do something different — and quite frankly ambitious — by waiving fees for all species," Garabedian said. "And what better time than Valentine’s Day when people are already thinking about finding their perfect match."

The adoptathon event runs Friday through Sunday at all MSPCA-Angell shelters in Salem, Boston, Cape Cod and Methuen.

"The shelter environment is stressful for a lot of animals — regardless of everything we do to keep them happy — so the longer they're with us, the worse off their well-being is," Garabedian expounded. "Not to mention the fact that they're taking up space that will always be needed for a future animal.

"All of the pets in our care are equally worthy of finding homes where they’ll get the love and attention they deserve."

Hours vary by location. More information may be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)