TAMPA, Fla. — The Humane Society of Tampa Bay needs your help. Their shelter is full of animals that need to find their forever homes.
Right now, they're offering a BOGO on cats and $40 for dogs over 40lbs. During December, they are also offering free micro-chipping on any dog or cat adopted during the month.
"We have more cats and dogs than ever that we've seen in years at this time of year. Usually, the holidays are a season when animals are flying off the shelves. But right now, and we think it's partially because of the pandemic, that's not the case," explained Christine McLarty with the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.
Part of the issue appears to be the PPE funding that many shelters received. HSTB believes those shelters then paid some of their medical facilities and in turn, stopped neutering their animals, especially cats.
HSTB is also seeing a lot of owners turning over their animals.
"We're not sure if that's because quarantine is it we're starting to move on from that and so they're not around as much to take care of the animal but we are seeing a lot of animals here especially dogs over 40 pounds. That seems to be the trend right now," McLarty said.
LUNA AND HER SEVEN CHRISTMAS MIRACLES
HSTB is taking care of Luna and her adorable seven Christmas miracles.
Luna, a 3-year-old border collie mix was found abandoned in a field with seven starving puppies.
"They were so tiny, just about this big. Somebody brought them to us. And had they not, I mean, those animals were scared, they were hungry, they were tired. You could tell that Luna wasn't able to produce milk at that point. So the babies would have starved but luckily just in time, a Christmas miracle happen and Luna and her seven puppies were brought here," said McLarty.
"We've been taking care of them. We currently have them in our one on one foster program. So that's a huge way that people can help here at the Humane Society Tampa Bay. It's where when an animal needs that one on one attention, or in this case, the puppies need a lot of attention," said McLarty.
HSTB could use more foster and volunteers for their dogs and cats. You can click here to find out all the ways they have to give this holiday.
