Arlington’s animal shelter is overcrowded. People can help by adopting pets with fees reduced to $5

Looking for a furry friend to complete the family? Arlington’s animal shelter can help.

And, maybe more importantly, you can help the animals.

Arlington Animal Services is adopting out pets for $5 from Aug. 1 to Aug. 23, a little more than a month after the city stopped accepting voluntary surrenders.

Those adoption fees are typically $100 for dogs and $90 for cats.

Michelle Patchett, the shelter’s marketing and social media manager, said the event is coming at a perfect time.

Arlington announced in June that the animal shelter would pause voluntary surrenders, telling the Arlington Report that the facility was significantly over capacity. Patchett said that’s still the case.

The shelter is equipped to house and care for up to 159 animals but has been treating more than 200 dogs per day since May, according to the Arlington Report.

“If we could get 100, 150, even maybe 200 adoptions, it would just give us more breathing room,” Patchett said.

What’s included?

Since 2015, Arlington’s shelter has participated in Clear the Shelters, an event aiming to help animals get out of the city’s care and into a home, by lowering costs for adopting animals to nearly nothing.

But that lower price doesn’t change what’s included in the adoption fee.

Spending $5 to adopt a pet from Aug. 1 to Aug. 23 includes spaying and neutering, a city license, microchipping, core vaccines, vaccination against rabies and testing for heartworm, FeLV and FIV.

Virtual adoptions are also possible through the campaign’s partner, WeRescue. The app allows users to find adoptable pets near them, submit their adoption applications and send questions directly to the shelter.

Saving lives

Adopting one pet from the Arlington shelter can save the lives of multiple animals, Patchett said.

“Somebody who comes in and they adopt a pet, now you’ve rescued your new forever pet that you’ve adopted in, but then you’re also saving another one,” she said. “Because you’ve allowed another kennel space for another homeless pet in need.”

The goal this year is to get 150 animals adopted out of the shelter.

Patchett said that would normally be the shelter’s entire capacity, but with the overcrowding it would instead help bring the shelter back under capacity.

Some of the animals, like the German shepherd mix puppy Tarzan, are expected to be quickly adopted. His kennel is in what the shelter calls the “adoption mall,” an area at the front of the shelter where some of the pets have windows where they and people can check each other out.

He is back in the adoption mall after a knee injury had him in the kennels in the back. Pratchett said she thinks he’ll be adopted very soon – he’s curious and friendly. The window into his kennel even calls him the “Pet of the Week.”

Cowboy is another dog the shelter expects to leave with a new family soon. The black and white Australian cattle dog mix is an energetic, excited and friendly pup who greets every person who walks past his window.

Patchett encouraged anybody thinking about getting a new pet to visit the shelter, check online to see which animals are there and to adopt from the shelter. She said they can also help folks who want to foster. For people who can’t adopt but want to help out, she said the shelter always needs volunteers to sit and socialize with the animals, take the dogs out for walks or help out around the facility.

Mobile pet adoption

The mobile pet adoption unit will also be out around Arlington every Saturday of the month, visiting different businesses across the city.

• The Arlington Animal Shelter, located at 1000 S.E. Green Oaks Blvd., is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Closed Sundays. 
• Saturday, Aug. 2 – The mobile pet adoption unit will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at PetSmart at the Arlington Highlands, 203 E. Interstate 20 in Arlington. 
• Saturday, Aug. 9 – The mobile pet adoption unit will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Petco at 4001 W. Green Oaks Blvd., Suite 159, in Arlington. 
• Saturday, Aug. 16 – The mobile pet adoption unit will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Petco at 2717 W Park Row Drive, Arlington. 
• Saturday, Aug. 23 – The mobile pet adoption unit will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Starbucks at 1225 W Bardin Road, Arlington. 

The discounted donations are part of Clear the Shelters event. The city is also hoping to raise money during the event through Greater Good Charities.

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