Shelter vs. shelter challenge helps pets find forever homes
In a play area at Orange County’s animal shelter, Buddy the yellow Lab mix sniffs around hesitantly and protests when a human tries to get him to walk on a leash. Given the loud noises, unfamiliar odors and strangers everywhere he turns, the 5-month-old pup clearly doesn’t appreciate it yet, but his timing is impeccable.
He arrived barely 36 hours before today’s start of the Second Annual Great Shelter Challenge — a creative, summer-long contest between county shelters in Orange, Seminole and Osceola to see which can achieve the highest percentage of adoptions, reunifications and placement of pets with rescue groups over the next three months.
“It came from the idea that we are all government shelters that could work together on something fun and have a friendly competition,” says Diane Gagliano, program and events co-
ordinator for Seminole County Animal Services, who came up with the plan. “Most government shelters get a bad rap because we’re always full and we sometimes have to [euthanize] animals. We wanted something that was a friendly competition — and a way to get people in here to meet these animals and get them adopted.”
Last year’s three-month contest resulted in nearly 5,300 adoptions — up about 6.5 percent overall from the year before.
Shelter populations routinely surge in the summer months. In 12 hours last weekend, for instance, Orange County took in 168 animals — including those surrendered by their owners and strays found roaming around neighborhoods.
It is much the same elsewhere in Central Florida.
“We always see more animals in the summer,” says Kim Staton, director of Osceola County Animal Services. “But lately we’ve had days where, in the span of a few hours, we’ll get 30, 40, 50 animals brought in. There will literally be a line of people with animals out the front door.”
Staton attributes the increase to high breeding rates in the spring and summer, especially among cats, and people spending more time outdoors — and so encountering more lost and abandoned pets.
At Orange County Animal Services, program manager Diane Summers says there are also a lot of pet owners who say they have to move after school lets out — and can’t take their dogs and cats with them.
“What I always hear people say is: ‘Oh, my gosh — how can you work there? Isn’t it depressing?’” she says. “But there’s something that happens when we see an animal adopted. I think the animals know that their old family has left them behind in some way, and when someone new takes them in and provides them a home, I think you can see on the animals’ faces how much they appreciate it. To me, that’s priceless.”
The challenge is only for bragging rights. But that doesn’t mean the shelters are any less earnest.
To boost their odds of winning, they’ll be running adoption specials, heartrending social media campaigns and creative promotions to find permanent homes for their pets — like Orange County’s upcoming Meow & Bowwow Luau later this month, a Hawaiianthemed adoption event. Or the June 17 adopt-a-thon, complete with DJ, vendors, food trucks and $10-per-pet adoption fees.
Osceola plans a summerlong adoption fee of $25 for cats or dogs and $10 for any “long-timers” — shelter residents who have been there for two weeks or more. The agency also will hold a June 10 “Hurricane Special” with even lower fees and speakers from the county’s emergency management team to provide information on how to care for your pets if you need to evacuate for a natural disaster.
“We want people to come by, meet the animals, and hopefully fall in love with someone,” Staton says. The shelter is designed to care for 140 dogs and cats. It’s currently housing about 225.
As for Seminole — which won last year’s contest — Gagliano plans half-priced adoptions all summer long, along with a series of “surprise mini events.”
“I don’t think we want to talk about it yet,” she says. “I think we’ll keep it secret until we roll it out. But let’s just say we have a lot of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes.”