FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — City of Fayetteville Animal Services and Best Friends Animal Society are teaming up for a holiday adoption extravaganza on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 9-10.
 
National Adoption Weekend is a collaborative weekend-long event that encourages people to open up their homes to adoptable animals by choosing to adopt – not buy – their next pet. All pet adoption fees will be waived this weekend, and Animal Services is offering free engraved pet ID tags for those who adopt during the event.
 
Best Friends Animal Society, a leading animal welfare organization working to save the lives of cats and dogs in America’s shelters by 2025, has partnered with more than 600 shelters and rescues for the holiday campaign. Three previous adoption weekends resulted in more than 25,000 pets finding loving homes.
 
Justine Lentz, Animal Services Superintendent for the City of Fayetteville, said, “This is a busy time of year for everyone, but we want to encourage people who are thinking about adopting a pet for the holidays to do so now when they have more time to commit to training and bonding with their new pet.”
 
All available dogs, puppies, cats and kittens will be spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated, if old enough. The application, adoption process and pictures of available pets at Animal Services may be found on the City’s website at https://www.fayetteville-ar.gov/539/Animal-Adoption-Process.
 
Across the country, shelters are struggling with higher intake, while adoptions, fosters and rescues are not keeping pace. Additionally, many shelters are facing challenges with staffing shortages, limited hours, decreased volunteers and reduced adoption events. All this adds up to most U.S. shelters being at or over capacity, resulting in pets being more at risk due to lack of space.
 
“We currently have more adoptable dogs than we have kennels for in our adoptable dog room, so we are in high need of adopters,” Lentz said. “We also have a foster program, in case someone isn’t ready to commit to adoption. They can foster and still make a big difference in helping that pet and our shelter.”
 
For more information about Animal Services, go to https://www.fayetteville-ar.gov/525/Animal-Services.
 
To view adoptable pets, go to https://fayettevillear.animalshelternet.com/ and click “search.”