Half-Price Pets At Local Animal Shelters

If you’ve been thinking of adopting a pet, there’s no time like now to make it happen.

For a limited time, you have an opportunity to save a life and save some money at the same time. Both the El Paso Humane Society and the El Paso Animal Services Center are temporarily cutting adoption fees in half, from $100 to $50. The promotion has been going on for less than a week. As of Tuesday morning, 140 pets were adopted between the shelters.

Bill Robinson and his wife found Candy at the Humane Society last week.

“She’s so happy,” Robinson said of his new puppy. “She’s got that ball of energy that makes you want to pick her up.”

Candy’s face wasn’t the only thing he found appealing. He was pleased to learn the adoption fees were cut in half.

“We couldn’t pass that up. we had to get her.” Robinson said. “She shot right into our arms. She remembered us” when he came back for her, he said.

“This effort is really working,” said Betty Hoover, the Executive Director of the El Paso Humane Society. Her organization is teaming up with Animal Services to encourage more adoptions over the next two weeks to alleviate overcrowding.

“Springtime is when animals reproduce and give birth,” Hoover said. “In the shelter business, we call it ‘kitten season’ and ‘puppy season.'”

Both shelters are severely overcrowded. In fact, Animal Services currently houses nearly double its capacity of 300 animals, with two and sometimes even three to a cage.

The only other way Animal Services can cut down on the overcrowding is by cutting short the animals’ lives.

“It’s quite overwhelming,” said Hugo Navarro, a supervisor for Animal Service. “We need to save more lives than euthanize.”

“Every time a pet is adopted from animal services, it’s saving a life,” said Hoover. “And every time a pet is adopted from the Humane Society, we go over and pull animals from Animal Services, so we’re working together to save these lives.”

The discounted rate is in effect until June 17. The Humane Society and the Animal Services Center are located adjacent to each other on Fred Wilson Boulevard in Northeast El Paso. The entrances are underneath the Spur 601 overpass, across from Fort Bliss National Cemetery.