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First California Adopt-a-Pet Day Hopes to Ease Shelter Overcrowding

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June 1 is California's first-ever Adopt-a-Pet Day, featuring free adoptions at dozens of shelters throughout the state amid significant overcrowding. Adoptions of larger dogs are especially needed. (Courtesy San Francisco SPCA)

With more than 20 years of experience in veterinary medicine, Dr. Jennifer Scarlett has seen a lot. The booming numbers of animals surrendered to shelters statewide shouldn’t faze her, shouldn’t surprise her, shouldn’t rock her professional veneer. 

But one image shook her.

“Boxes of puppies, abandoned in orchards and given up all over the place,” Scarlett, CEO of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Animals, told KQED. “There’s just so many puppies. Just boxes and boxes of German shepherds and huskies coming in.”

In a bid to ease those jam-packed shelters, the SF SPCA, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the nonprofit California Animal Welfare Association are partnering to launch the first California Adopt-a-Pet Day on Saturday. 

Adoption fees for dogs and cats at more than 150 California animal welfare organizations will be dropped, and a new web tool will help people find participating shelters. The ASPCA and its partners will pick up the tab of an estimated $500,000 to shelters, which depend on adoption fees as part of their revenue. 

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“We want to remove those barriers, and we want to remind Californians that there are wonderful animals in the shelter,” said Matthew Bershadker, president and CEO of the ASPCA. 

“Nothing would make me happier to spend more,” he said. “If we can save more lives, the ASPCA would be happy to reimburse those shelters those adoption fees.”
The organizations have set a goal of 2,024 adoptions for the event, according to Jill Tucker, CEO of CalAnimals.

“I have a hunch we’re going to blow past that,” she said. “I’m very optimistic about it.”

The stakes are high. Shelters across California are overwhelmed.

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They’re receiving too many dogs – and, to a lesser extent, cats – due to a population boom driven by an acute national veterinarian shortage, which has lessened the availability of spay and neuter appointments. In California, 60% of animal welfare organizations have unfilled veterinary positions, according to an SF SPCA survey last year of 111 organizations

Spay and neuter appointments were also deferred during the pandemic.

“You’re looking at thousands and thousands of animals entering the community that would not have had we not had to shut down,” Scarlett said.

At the same time, a post-pandemic economy, coupled with rising housing instability, has prompted many Californians to give up their pets, Tucker said. Housing issues are the “number one reason” given for surrendering pets, she told KQED.

“Behind every animal is a human, and that human story, as to why that animal landed in a shelter,” she said. “And that is the most heartbreaking thing; we want more than anything for people to be able to keep their pets.”

Year-to-year data showing the number of animals in California shelters is difficult to compare for a number of reasons: Data collection is voluntary, and the rules around how many dogs and cats a shelter will accept can change each year. Some shelters began raising requirements for accepting animals as overcrowding rose after 2020, for instance. 

Those caveats aside, Shelter Animals Count, a national database, has some available comparisons nationally. About 690,000 animals were euthanized in the United States last year, 52% of which were dogs and 48% of which were cats. That’s a 15% increase since 2022.

In places like Tulare County in the Central Valley, Scarlett said puppies are being surrendered more frequently amid a shortage of available veterinarians to spay and neuter animals. 

In 2019, Tulare County Animal Services took in 5,585 dogs, and in 2024 that had dropped to 2,442 dogs under new “managed intake” rules, like requiring owners to have an appointment to surrender their pets and limiting feral dog intakes. Meanwhile, puppies are making up a larger share of those dogs. The agency accepted 1,126 puppies this year, which is projected to reach 2,700 by the end of the year, a 30% increase since 2019. 

The number of dogs Tulare County Animal Services euthanized in 2019 was 1,332, and that rose to 1,483 last year. This year’s number is set to outpace 2023.

While the rise in dogs surrendered to shelters, and particularly puppies, is disheartening, Scarlett said the California Adopt-a-Pet Day could make a difference. 

“There’s so much in the world that we can’t control,” she said. “But we can affect this.”

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