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5th Annual Home 4 the Holiday Pet Adoption Campaign
Nov 15, 2005 PRESS RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT: Ria Brown 5th Annual Home 4 the Holidays Pet Adoption Campaign Kicks Off! Fort Myers, Florida, November 15, 2005-Lee County Animal Services will join more than 2,000 pet shelters and adoption centers across the country for Home 4 the Holidays 2005, a national event organized to raise awareness of the joys of owning shelter-adopted pets. Organizers hope to link more than 350,000 dogs, cats, puppies, kittens, and other companion pets with loving, adoptive families. Lee County Animal Services will launch its local campaign on December 1st and by December 31st hopes to place 250 pets from its facility in life-long homes. To track the number of adoptions and encourage the public's participation, a string of lights will be lit on the holiday tree outside the shelter every time 50 pets are adopted. When the shelter's adoption goal has been reached the star at the top of the tree will also be lit! Pets adopted during the campaign will go to their new homes with a special gift in addition to the services normally provided with each adoption. The adoption fee of $65 for dogs and $50 for cats includes spay/neuter surgery, vaccinations appropriate for each animal's age, flea treatment, worming, heartworm test for dogs six months or older, feline aids and leukemia test for cats, a county license for pets three months or older, and a nationally registered Microchip Pet ID. The Home 4 the Holidays adoption campaign is a departure from the traditional practice of shelters suspending pet adoptions during the holidays, which are normally very hectic. In the past it was considered a bad time to introduce a new pet into the household. However, many shelters euthanize more animals during this period due to overcrowding while missing out on the season when most people seek to add a companion animal to their family. Adoption hours at Lee County Animal Services are 10 am to 4:30 pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 am to 7 pm on Tuesday, and 10 am to 2:30 pm on Saturday. For more information call 432-2083. Lee County Animal Services provides animal control services throughout Lee County and operates an animal shelter to house stray and abandoned domestic animals. Animal intake exceeds 15,000 annually. It also administers low-cost spay/neuter programs, animal cruelty investigation, education, rabies control, and bite case management programs. The shelter is located off Six Mile Cypress Parkway next to the Lee County Sheriff's Dept. |