Half Price adoptions in December helped the Home end 2011 on a high, with a record 414 dogs and cats adopted across all the Home’s shelters.
‘We could not have hoped for a better outcome. It is just wonderful to see so many deserving dogs and cats starting 2012 in loving, new homes,’ General Manager of Operations Sue Conroy said.
After slow adoption rates towards the end of November and with the holiday period about to begin, we really wanted to get the message out to everyone considering a new pet- come and adopt! The summer holidays are the perfect time to settle in a new pet with most of the family home and when most families have plenty time to spend introducing a new four legged friend.
We know our adoption prices are already great value, with all dogs and cats being desexed, vaccinated, microchipped, and wormed during their time at the shelter, and in addition all dogs at our North Melbourne Shelter also come with a free obedience lesson. However, we wanted to give everyone some extra help in adopting during what can be an expensive time of year.
It seemed the 50% discount made a world of difference. In December 2010, 264 dogs and cats were adopted from our North Melbourne Shelter. In 2011, this grew to 356 - with the last day in December being our busiest of all, as we saw a huge 46 cats and dogs adopted.
To use a cliché, “our dogs and cats at half price are incredible value, but just knowing that so many were sharing a warm and happy Christmas or seeing in the New Year with a new family was simply priceless for us!” said Sue.
Half price adoptions in December also helped us achieve another goal: to get more pet owners to complete our online Pet Licence test. Especially during December, we wanted to make sure that all new owners and prospective owners fully understood the responsibilities of adopting a new pet.
“It was great to see that 623 people did the online Pet Licence test, many in preparation for coming in to look at the dogs and cats for adoption. As well as raising awareness about adopting a dog or cat from The Lost Dogs’ Home, education is an integral part of our mission” said Sue.
2011 certainly finished with a record few weeks in our adoption pens and we will do all we can to ensure that the steady stream of adoptions continues throughout 2012. We can’t always offer half price adoptions, but the incentive of a discount remains with $30 off Dog and Puppy adoption prices and $15 off Cat and Kitten adoption prices if new ‘pawrents’ complete our online pet licence before adopting.
All animals available for adoption can be viewed here.
