Orange County Animal Services Waives Adoption Fees for “Ready to Go” Dogs

Asks Community for Help as Over 200 Dogs Await Placement

Orange County, Fla. – Since reopening for the New Year on Tuesday, January 2, Orange County Animal Services has received more than 90 dogs. The shelter is now caring for more than 200 dogs and asking for the community to step forward to adopt, foster, or attempt to reunite found dogs with their owners before resorting to bringing them to the shelter. Adoption fees have been waived for dogs already spayed/neutered, vaccinated and microchipped, those are designated as “ready to go.”

“This is a challenging time of year for us as most people aren’t in a position to adopt around the holidays, money is tight, people are travelling and spending time with family,” said Diane Summers, manager for Orange County Animal Services. “Unfortunately, while adoption interest may dwindle around the holidays, our intake does not.”

Among the more than 200 dogs in the shelter’s care are some pets that have been waiting for months to land a home, like Keiko (A535091) who arrived on October 12, 2023 and Simon (A535269) who arrived on October 17, 2023. “We have some really great dogs here right now, but they just keep getting overlooked,” said Summers. “A lot of visitors tend to beeline right toward the puppies and small dogs, but we need adopters and foster parents willing to take in the larger dogs.”

The shelter recently launched an intake diversion program aimed at providing resources to struggling pet owners and triaging cases where dogs need to be admitted. Due to the volume of pets already at the shelter, Animal Services has yet to be able to begin accepting these dogs. “The queue of people wanting to surrender their dogs continues to grow with each day,” said Summers.

Animal Services is asking residents to consider adopting and fostering. For those that have found a stray dog, the shelter is asking finders to first try to locate the owner.