Humane Society hopes to ‘Empty the Shelter’ in July

Animal shelters around the nation are nearing capacity.

Adoptions have plummeted and surrenders have increased since this spring and while the Greater Hillsdale Humane Society successfully adopted out 22 cats and dogs during an adoption program in May, the shelter is back at capacity forcing staff to foster out surrenders until adopters can be found.

Joni Baker, the director of the Greater Hillsdale Humane Society, is on a campaign to “Empty the Shelter” once again since taking over the position in April.

This adoption spree — partnering with the Bissell Pet Foundation — will span three weeks through the end of July, Baker said, with the program being expanded beyond the original one week program timeframe in hopes of growing adoption opportunities.

“We are partnered with the Bissell Pet Foundation and its through them we do the Empty the Shelter event,” Baker said. “It’s really gotten a lot bigger. It seems like every time we do one it gets bigger.”

The partnership allows kennels and shelters to greatly reduce adoption fees assessed during the adoption process to $25 for cats and $50 for dogs with the shelters being reimbursed from the Bissell Pet Foundation.

“It’s a way to kind of get people out here and get animals moving,” Baker said.

This is the second year the Greater Hillsdale Humane Society has engaged with the Bissell Pet Foundation for the program which runs four adoption weeks a year typically, Baker said.

The Greater Hillsdale Humane Society is open 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and has the ability to house 60 cats in house. They also have 21 large dog kennels, six puppy kennels and three dog isolation cages.

The shelter has been at capacity for the past two weeks, Baker said.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: ‘Empty the Shelter’ to run through end of July