Dallas

Clear the Shelters DFW: More Than 7,000 Pets Adopted

It smashes the number of pets adopted last year

With the third annual Clear the Shelters event over, more than 7,000 shelter animals have been adopted in Dallas-Fort Worth since July 31.

With the third annual Clear the Shelters event drawing to a close, more than 7,000 shelter animals have been adopted in Dallas-Fort Worth since July 31.

That's a pretty big portion of the 69,000-plus new pets adopted across the country during this year's event. And it's nearing the 7,500 mark reached in North Texas last year.

The 7,474 needy animals who welcomed into forever homes in North Texas this year include Will, a pitbull-mix who'd been at the Keller Regional Animal Adoption Center for months, according to Chelsea, an adoption specialist at the shelter.

"He was very picky about other dogs that he liked," she said.

But on Saturday, that didn't matter to the family that brought her home. "They seemed really happy when they left," Chelsea said.

And Will? "He was excited โ€” he got to go out the front door."

In fact, a lot of animals walked out the door of the Keller shelter. It started with 80 animals Saturday morning and had three dogs and 15 cats left by about 3 p.m.

Clear the Shelters 2017: Shelter Dogs, Interviews

Seven North Texas shelters were cleared with Royse City the first to report being clear. Wylie, Cleburne, Euless, Arlington, Denton and Bedford followed. Dallas Animal Services adopted out 204 animals by 2:30 p.m. โ€” sharing a picture on Twitter of rows of open kennels.

Clear the Shelters has spread across the country since 2014, when NBC 5 launched the first adoption event. More than 900 shelters and over 70 local NBC and Telemundo television stations are participating this year across the United States, including Puerto Rico, Saturday.

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