SEATTLE — Seattle Humane Society is taking part in a national Clear the Shelters event through the month of August. While all the animals in the shelter need to find a good home, the older animals typically need to be adopted the most.
"Kittens have no problem finding homes, it's usually a lot of the older pets that are in our shelters a little longer," Brandon Macz from Seattle Humane said. "There are especially a lot of larger, senior dogs that are looking for homes right now. A lot of folks don't think they have the space or the time."
According to Macz, kittens are adorable, they are a lot more energetic and if you are looking for a calmer situation an older pet is the way to go.
Especially since many of the shelters in the country are currently at capacity.
"There are a lot of shelters that are experiencing overcrowding right now. It's a very hard time for a lot of folks economically right now," Macz said. "Inflation has caused the cost of care to go up, there's a vetinary shortage, it's really hard to acquire medical care. There's just so many factors that are mounting for a lot of pet owners and they are facing hard decisions about whether to take care of themselves or to take care of their pets."
Because Seattle Humane Society is a managed intake shelter they are able to supplement and help other shelters that are facing overcrowding.
"We never want to be over capacity so we have the ability to help out those other shelters when they ask like we did with out friends at Good Cat Network that were needing us to help out with some cats from Maui," Macz said. "We took those in last week and of course now all of those mostly kittens have been spoken for."
While younger animals are adopted right away many, like larger, senior dogs are left in shelters for months and even a full year before getting adopted.
"It can be very stressful for a pet to be in the shelter system. After about two weeks you can see they'll decline a bit mentally. So we really want to work our best to get them out of the shelter," Macz said. "We have a lot of foster homes we put these pets in that we know are going to need a little extra time so they can decompress, get a lot of love and we can learn a little more about them since pets don't really show as well in the shelter."
This Saturday, August 26, Seattle Humane Society is having an all day adoption event, offering all cats and dogs over 6 months old at 50% off reduced fees.
For those who can't adopt monetary and food donations are incredibly helpful to the shelters. Follow Seattle Humane on social media and checkout their website for more information on adopting.
Sponsored by Seattle Humane.
Segment Producer Rebecca Perry. Watch New Day Northwest 11 a.m. weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.