Dallas Animal Shelter Packed as Clear the Shelters Campaign Kicks-off

The parking lot was full and dozens of perspective pet owners were inside the Dallas Animal Services Shelter early Saturday morning on the search for a new friend, and that’s a welcomed sight for staff members who are caring for more animals than they’ve seen in a while.

“We are just out of space,” said Director Cate McManus. “I mean, we have over 600 animals here ready to be adopted, and it’s pretty much as one [cage] gets empty, one fills it right away.”

McManus said the shelter always sees big stray and surrender populations during the summer, but this year she believes they may be dealing with even more than usual, and she said other shelters are reporting similar situations.

The Dallas shelter has already discounted their adoption fees for the month as they join NBC 5 in kicking-off the Clear the Shelters campaign.

For the month of July, 67 animal shelters in DFW and hundreds around the US will join forces to get as many animals as possible out of the shelters and into forever homes with loving families.

This will be the third year NBC 5 has participated and the second year NBC Universal stations across the country will take part with last year’s event leading to more than 20,000 adoptions nationwide.

The main Clear the Shelters Day will be on July 23^rd when participating shelters, including Dallas, will offer free or reduced adoption fees.