TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - The Tallahassee Animal Service Center is nearly full and is hoping that a free adoption event this weekend will help to reduce its crowded kennels.

It’s joining more than 50 other shelters and rescues across the state for Petco’s Florida MEGA Pet Adoption event, which aims to adopt 2000 pets in three days.

It comes at a critical time. This is peak season for both puppies and kittens, said Tallahassee Animal Services Assistant Director Grayson Walters. Walters said the shelter has “easily over 100 dogs” and more than 40 puppies.

“It is for us and really for animal shelters all over the country,” Walters said. “Animal shelters absolutely see an increase in numbers in the spring and summer months, but we just have so many.”

The kennels are bustling with kittens, too.

“We have well over 30 or 40 here at the shelter,” Walters said. “There’s many more in foster care.”

Those who work at the shelter say the puppies and kittens are all adorable reminders to spay and neuter your pets.

“That’s the proactive approach to keeping these guys from being in a shelter in the first place,” Walters said.

A local spay and neuter clinic is working to cut down on unwanted litters in the future. The Animal Shelter Foundation runs a clinic on West Tennessee Street called Tally Spay. Veterinarian Lainie Velasquez says it does as many as 150 surgeries a week.

“We do about 25 animals per doctor per day, so on a one doctor day that’s 25 and on a two doctor day it’s 50,” Velasquez said.

A spay/neuter surgery here costs $80 to $90 for dogs and $60 to $70 for cats. The same surgery at a vet’s office can cost two to four times as much.

Tally Spay Vice President Lauren Perlman said her team is committed to trying to reduce overpopulation and the number of stray and unwanted pets that come with it.

“It’s having a tremendous impact,” she said. “Since we opened in 2021, we have done over 10,000 surgeries. We know how quickly cats and dogs, as well, can reproduce without surgery,” Perlman said.

It’s a service they hope will help to reduce crowding at busy shelters, said Tally Spay Operations Director Kelly Hale.

“There’s just not enough homes for the amount of animals out there,” Hale said. “So if we can control it on the front lines from preventing unwanted litters, then that’s what we’re here to do.”

The kennels at the Tallahassee Animal Service Center are nearly full. Staff there hope that free adoptions this weekend will help pups like Porkchop find homes fast.

“He actually was recently adopted, it didn’t work out,” Walters said, “and he just came back, so he is waiting and wiggling for a new home.”

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