SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Animal shelters around California have been dealing with overcrowding in recent months and Saturday came a chance to clear the kennels.
At more than 170 shelters across the state, adoption fees were waived for the day as part of the inaugural California Adopt a Pet Day.
"It's sponsored by the ASPCA, the SF SPCA and Cal Animals. It's a nonprofit and it's meant to get as many pets as possible into loving homes," said Johanna Crystal with the City of Sacramento's Front Street Animal Shelter. "We have 99 kennels for dogs and we currently have 150 dogs in residence so it's been a struggle and it's been a strain."
Aziana Kingtoney and her family were happy to help ease that strain, taking home their new dog Casper.
"When he got out of the cage, I was super excited," said Aziana. "I'm feeling good."
Even after nearly four hours of waiting, the 6-year-old was still feeling good and couldn't help but smile when Casper was finally brought out to her.
"It's worth the wait because it gets packed very quickly, especially on free adoption day," said Aziana's mom Gianna Kingtoney. "We actually looked at a couple but he caught our eye — bringing a new buddy home."
All those extra families coming in means long wait times, but for shelter officials, seeing potential adopters fill the kennels instead of new animals is refreshing.
It's what they hope to see every day. According to the shelter's public information coordinator, adopting an animal from the shelter any day is the best way to get a new pet because adopting means potentially saving an animal's life and saving money on fees like microchipping.
"We've seen a lot of families come in," said Crystal. "It's really exciting. I have never seen this shelter this packed before. Just walking around it's really gratifying to see all the potential new families that the dogs and cats here might have today."
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