Dog days: Licking County Dog Shelter cuts adoption fee due to overcrowding

The Licking County Dog Shelter and Adoption Center is hoping to help dogs find their forever homes by cutting its normal adoption fee from $130 to $50 because of overcrowding at the shelter.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the shelter at 544 Dog Leg Road in Heath had 43 dogs but only 40 pens. One dog was adopted, but two more were brought in. Luckily, a litter of puppies is sharing a pen, allowing the shelter to exceed its capacity.

Being in a shelter is stressful for dogs, and dropping the price is a way to meet the shelter's "ultimate goal" of finding the dogs loving homes, said Licking County Chief Dog Warden Larry Williams.

"We don't care about the adoption price as much as we care about finding the dogs a better home," Assistant Chief Dog Warden Jeremy Grant said.

The current $50 fee breaks down to $22 for the license, $20 for the adoption fee and the remaining $8 for vaccines, Grant said.

The discounted fee will remain in effect as long as staff deem it necessary to clear space, Williams said.

If people are interested in adopting a dog, Williams said they should look at the available dogs on the shelter's website, lcdogshelter.com, and schedule an appointment. People can also look at a listing of the dogs in-person at the shelter, Williams said. He added that they aren't allowing people to walk through the shelter currently because it gets the dogs worked up and then they aren't on their best behavior to meet their prospective new family.

Appointments to see the dogs are available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on days the shelter is open. The shelter is open Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but will be closed this Monday, May 27, for the Memorial Day holiday.

Williams said the shelter has seen an influx of dogs since 2021. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he said people were adopting dogs because they were staying home. But as restrictions lifted and people had to return to work or returned to more normal activities by mid-2021, the shelter started seeing more dogs.

"Now it's just overwhelming," Williams said. "There's weeks we'll take 15 dogs in one week and maybe get five out, either by redemption or adoption."

mdevito@gannett.com

740-607-2175

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Licking County Dog Shelter cuts adoption fee due to overcrowding