Animal House: Something to Bark About
It was raining cats and dogs inside the Avenues Mall lower level at the 2023 Petco Love Mega Pet Adoption Event on June 23-25. The event finally returned to Northeast Florida, having been on hold since October 2019 due to COVID-19 and economic factors. Petco stores at Marsh Landing Parkway and Kernan Village participated, while the Jacksonville Humane Society (JHS), Duval County Animal Care & Protective Services, and the Clay and Nassau County Animal Services brought animals in for adoption. As part of the promotion, all adoptions were free, with some exclusions.
Denise Deisler, who has led JHS as CEO for the past 12 years, called the event a “thrilling success,” with 1,946 pet adoptions across Florida that weekend, including all locations. Deisler reported that 943 cats and 1,003 dogs happily went home with their new families. Those numbers have continued to increase as some attendees decided to adopt pets they had met at the event in the days following.
The gray, stormy weather outside did not dampen the excitement in the mall’s lower level, where a sprawling pet-viewing area encircled an adoption counseling command center. A small, busy army of helpful volunteers and staff guided guests through the rows of neatly arranged crates, where families searched for their new best friend and family member.
Conversations about individual animals could be overheard on every aisle between staff pet advisors, volunteers and potential adopters. Individuals of all ages, couples and families were petting, talking to, holding and getting to know animals they were considering for adoption.
Emerson and Anne Banas of Arlington adopted Shaffer, 2, a large, mixed-breed, 55-pound male dog from Nassau County Animal Services.
“We have had Rottweilers for 30 years; our last one passed a while ago. We have missed having a dog,” Emerson Banas said. “Our 25th wedding anniversary is in August. We thought this was a perfect way to celebrate that, too. Then we got here and met Shaffer and fell in love with him.”
Jami Davidson and her daughter Kenzie, 12, of Baymeadows, saw the event advertised on Facebook and came to shop, but made a beeline straight for the kittens. Their choice was a silky black beauty who made it quite clear the Davidsons were his choice too. Davidson said that they always try to choose solid black animals, because those usually have the most difficulty being adopted.
“The cats and kittens are getting a lot of attention. Several kittens were claimed by people who were here early the minute we brought them out of their carriers,” said Kathryn Belina, a JHS volunteer, who also organizes her co-workers at Florida Blue to group volunteer walking dogs at the JHS shelter every month.
The Mega Pet Adoption weekend often brings more than just happy adoption stories. A potential adopter who had lost her dog visited the event to adopt another pet. To her shock and amazement, as she walked down the aisles of available dogs, she saw her own lost dog!
Bystanders recorded the tearful reunion in photographs as the overwhelmed owner cried out, dropped to her knees and pressed her head to her dog’s forehead through the crate. He had been taken to Clay County Animal Services as a stray dog who was never claimed and was brought to the adoption event.
The Mega Pet Adoption Event was made possible when organizations like JHS and the animal shelters joined with the event’s national sponsors, Petco Love, BOBS from Skechers and I Heart Media. The statewide, coordinated marketing and promotional campaign supported the mission of 45 participating Florida animal welfare groups. Their goal was to find loving families for hundreds of shelter dogs and cats in 31 Florida counties. Nineteen Florida Petco stores and three large regional events, like the one at The Avenues Mall, all hosted adoptable pets. Deisler said this was the first time that government and private agencies coordinated in an effort of this kind and size in Florida.
Jacksonville first offered Mega Pet Adoption Events in 2011 and 2012, and the successful idea was soon copied by communities nationwide, according to Deisler. Planning has already begun for the 2024 event.
“We were thrilled with the results and the number of adoptions for an event that took place across Florida,” said Deisler.
By Julie Kerns Garmendia
Resident Community News
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