SLO County shelter is helping pets find homes for the holidays with $25 adoption special
A nonprofit San Luis Obispo County animal shelter is helping dogs and cats find homes this holiday season by reducing adoption fees.
During Woods Humane Society’s Home for the Holidays adoption event, which runs Saturday through Dec. 24, folks can adopt pets for just $25, according to a Tuesday news release.
Normally, it costs as much as $200 to take an animal home from one of Woods’ two locations.
“Pets bring so much joy, laughter, love and friendship to a home, and nothing says ‘home’ quite like the warm greeting and wagging tail of a beloved dog or cat,” Woods CEO Emily L’Heureux said in the release. “We can’t imagine a better holiday gift to give this community than to reduce barriers to adopting a best friend this season.”
How can you adopt a pet for $25 in SLO County?
The Home for the Holidays promotion begins at noon Saturday and runs through Christmas Eve, Sunday, Dec. 24.
The $25 adoption deal applies to all pets at Woods Humane Society, located at 875 Oklahoma Ave. in San Luis Obispo and 2300 Ramona Road in Atascadero.
Typically, adoption fees cost $65 to $200 depending on the animal you adopt.
However, the Home for the Holidays promotion doesn’t include San Luis Obispo County dog license fees, which cost $31 to $79 for a year.
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You can find a full list of adoptable animals online.
All animals available for adoption at Woods have been spayed or neutered, as well as vaccinated, microchipped, licensed and treated for parasites. Dogs come with temporary leashes while cats have cardboard carriers.
Adoption comes with a voluntary 30 days of pet insurance and a free wellness exam at a local veterinary clinic, Woods said.
Woods Humane Society is open daily for adoptions from noon to 4 p.m. and closed on Christmas.
Are animal shelters seeing more unwanted dogs and cats?
According to Woods, area shelters are seeing “unprecedented” numbers of dogs and cats in need of adoption, resulting in overcrowding.
“We are seeing these issues impact our shelter partners across the region,” Woods communications manager Jamie Relth wrote in an email.
Relth cited a quarterly report from Shelter Animals Count that compared national animal shelter data from January through September to data from 2021 and 2022.
“Nationally, shelters are in their third year of having too many animals and not enough adoptions — especially for dogs,” the report said.
According to the report, dog adoptions decreased 1.2% in January through September of this year compared to 2022.
Meanwhile, the number of dogs taken in by shelters during that time period increased 2.5%.
The report found a 10% increase in overall shelter intake compared to 2021, driven primarily by dogs.
Relth said that Woods is a “limited intake adoption facility,” meaning that it doesn’t take in any more animals that it has space for.
“With that said, we have definitely witnessed a growing number of surrender and transfer requests this year,” she said, “and we have done everything we can to increase adoptions so that we can increase our intakes.
So far in 2023, Woods has taken in 2,820 unwanted pets in total, Relth said, a 2% increase from 2022, when the shelter took in 2,738 animals.
Between its locations in Atascadero and San Luis Obispo, the release said, Woods currently has 76 animals available for adoption and a total of 126 animals in its care.
“We hope our adoption promotion will help encourage adoptions so that we can make more shelter space available to transport animals that are at risk in overcrowded shelters,” Relth said.
For more information about Woods, call 805-543-9316 or visit WoodsHumane.org
This story was originally published December 15, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
