THUNDER BAY - A strategy to move animals out of the city’s shelter appears to be working.
Thunder Bay Animal Services this week lowered its adoption fees in the hopes more animals taking up space at the shelter could find new, permanent homes.
Moving those animals out of the shelter would also help animal services free up spaces for the new incoming residents. “We’ve had some success this week so we’ve adopted a few dogs out already,” manager Jody Kondrat said Wednesday.
The adoption fee for dogs has been lowered from $210 to $110, and the adoption fee for cats from $200 to $50. “That fee includes a pet that has been spayed or neutered,” Kondrat said. “We vaccinate all the animals, deworm them all, microchip them all, and all of our cats have been treated for internal parasites.”
The reduced adoption fees accompany the shelter’s pet birthday celebrations. Kondrat says because the birthdays of the shelter animals are mostly unknown, Animal Services decided to celebrate the birthdays of all of its animals this week to help promote the fee reductions.
The shelter is not overcrowded, but Kondrat says overcrowding can happen at any time of the year. “We sometimes will get anywhere from 15 to 20 cats in one day coming in,” said Kondrat. “So it doesn’t take long to become overcrowded when you’re talking about those kinds of numbers.”
Some of the pets that are currently in the shelter have been there for quite some time, Kondrat adds. “We’ve got a couple of dogs that have been here for six months, we’ve got some cats that have been here for even longer than that, so certainly we’re hoping that we can move those animals along and find them homes.”
Spring is often a busy time for the shelter. “We have lots of cats and litters of kittens and dogs coming in, so it’s important to free up some space so we can make more space for animals coming in,” Kodrat says.
For more information about the animal shelter visit the city’s website .
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