WAKULLA COUNTY, FL — The Wakulla County Animal Shelter is hosting its Spring Fling event on Saturday, March 28, offering sponsored adoptions and free microchips to help pets find and stay in loving homes.
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The event takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Crawfordville. Tallahassee Big Dog Rescue is covering the adoption fees for all the animals adopted during the event.
"Pet care is expensive. We know that, and that's one of the reasons why we do receive sponsorships from area businesses and different rescue groups. It enables a person to bring the animal into their home. They're obviously, they desire to have a pet. If we can find a loving home for them to be in, there's no reason for us to charge them up front," Walter Class said.
Class, the animal control manager at the shelter, said the shelter will also send new pet owners home with care baskets to help them get started.
In addition to adoptions, the shelter is offering free microchips to the first 100 Wakulla County residents who bring their pets to the event. Class said the goal is to get ahead of storm season so separated animals can return home.
"It enables any vet clinic, any animal shelter anywhere, to identify who this animal belongs to and get it back to you. That's always our goal is to return them home," Class said.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, 52.2% of dogs with microchips are returned home compared to 21.9% without. For cats, 38.5% are reunited with owners due to microchips compared to 1.8% without.
"It's so important to have your animal microchipped and identified, because we know nationally, only 18% of dogs go back home to owners, and those are primarily the ones that are already identified through a microchip or through a tag on their collar," Class said.
Class says microchips made last year's Spring Fling memorable.
"Our favorite memory was we had found a dog that had came to us as a stray. We found out that he was microchipped. He was out of South Florida, and his owner came up during our event and actually reclaimed him. He was thrilled to actually discover that his dog that had been lost for over a year and a half was reunited with him," Class said.
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