Bay County Animal Shelter waives adoption fees due to overcrowding

BAY COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – Bay County’s animal shelter is dealing with major overcrowding.
Shelter officials said they’ve had a large number of people surrendering their pets.

Enough people have surrendered their pets, that the Bay County Animal Shelter is full. They’re encouraging people to adopt by making it extremely easy.

Shelter officials said they hear a lot of reasons for the surge in surrenders, but the three most common are higher costs for pet care, housing issues, and behavioral problems.

“A lot of the reasons we’re getting is they just can’t afford the animals anymore. A lot of times they’re moving from the area and they cannot take their animal with them. So a lot of what we’re seeing is financial,” Animal Control Manager Serina Junger said.

The shelter is running out of space to house these animals.

“It’s that we just honestly do not have a place for that animal. Give us a callback. We’re we’re encouraging people to call back and just know that we are trying our very best to make arrangements for everybody. We understand it’s hard, but it’s hard here in the shelter as well,” Junger said.

In response, the shelter is ramping up efforts to boost adoptions.

“We’re going to be waiving our adoption fees. So you come into the shelter and see the animals that we have available for adoption. That fee is going to be waived too. Your animal is going to be completely age-appropriate, and vaccinated. It will be spayed or neutered. It will have a microchip, a flea preventative, and a heartworm preventative on board,” Junger added.

Shelter animal caretakers say the sudden influx of animals is straining.

“It can be a little bit overwhelming for everybody here. I mean, you know, just for anybody throughout Bay County in particular, you know, other shelters and whatnot, we’re seeing like a huge fluctuation of just animals pouring in left and right,” A.C.O Officer Elizabeth Schaus said.

If you’re interested in helping out or adopting a pet you can visit the Bay County shelter during regular hours.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com.