County waives some pet adoption fees as shelter fills

WEST PALM BEACH — The Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control shelter takes any animal that walks through the doors but is now at critical capacity with no space for new animals, according to a shelter spokesman.

To help get animals into loving homes and free up more space, the shelter has waived the adoption fee for all adult cats and adult dogs over 40 pounds.

Kittens and small dogs can be adopted at the buyer’s named price. The promotion will go until the end of June.

The shelter currently has about 500 animals, nearly an even split between cats and dogs, along with one sheep, said spokesman Capt. David Walesky.

The shelter’s director Dianne Sauve said the amount is far beyond a comfortable capacity. The shelter kennels are built to house 48 dogs, but with high numbers they have to double up cages, which poses a health risk.

“When your numbers get this high, you run the risk of an outbreak that can devastate your population,” she said.

She said the number of animals coming in hasn’t matched the adoption. On Wednesday alone, 47 cats were brought into the shelter along with 10 other animals.

With high numbers, the shelter has to make “hard choices” about which animals have been there the longest and what animals have diseases. The save rate for dogs is about 87 percent, and the save rate for cats is about 65 percent, Sauve said.

“Those are decisions that none of us want to make,” she said.

The longest resident of the shelter is Dude, a 3-year-old, 60-pound dog who has been up for adoption for the past seven months, Sauve said.

All animals in the shelter are spayed and neutered, up to date on vaccinations, microchipped and have a tag. Adopters also get a bag of pet food and a health-care certificate with each adoption.

The shelter is along Belvedere Road just west of Florida’s Turnpike. Adoption hours for the weekday are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Weekend hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.