Pet Shelters ‘Splitting At The Seams’ After Fireworks, Monsoons

PHOENIX, AZ — Area animal shelters were already overflowing with pets spooked by Fourth of July fireworks when monsoon flooding displaced even more. Maricopa County Animal Care and Control said that between the two events, the agency was housing more than 1,000 animals and “splitting at the seams.”

July 5 is traditionally the busiest day of the year for animal shelters — in the Phoenix area and nationwide. Pets are more sensitive to the loud noises fireworks make than humans, and may run to get away from them. Thunder and other noises associated with strong storms have the same effect.

An empty-the-shelter pet adoption event was held this past weekend with the support of the Bissell Pet Foundation, a Michigan-based charity founded in 2011 to reduce the number of pets in shelters nationwide. The group was underwriting the costs of vaccinations, licenses, spay and neuter surgeries, and microchips, which allowed people to adopt adult cats and dogs free of charge.

Maricopa County Animal Care and Control’s social media pages are filled with great stories of pets that are finding new homes, including one from shelter volunteer Laura Zundel. (Get Phoenix Patch's real-time news alerts and free morning news letters. Like us on Facebook. Also, download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app.)

“I don’t have too many days like today,” she wrote on the agency’s Facebook pages. “I’ve done a lot of adoptions at MCACC. There are some that just seem to come together by the forces of the Universe. I had the extreme pleasure of matching up a veteran who was lonely and needed a companion, a family that needed an emotional support dog for their son with autism, a veteran suffering from PTSD, a family who wanted a great dog for their kids, a family that needed a good for their large acreage. People say I invest too much time with the dogs. I say I get back way more than I put in.”

Although the clear-the-shelter event is over, there are still plenty of cats and dogs that need homes. More than 35,000 cats and dogs enter the Maricopa County shelters every year. Special summer prices are in effect. Senior cats, for example, can be adopted free of charge.

Find a dog to adopt here.

Find a cat to adopt here.

Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images