Toccoa-Stephens County Humane Shelter Offering Adoption Deal on Cats/Kittens

The Toccoa-Stephens County Humane Shelter is bursting at the seems with animals needing to be adopted and now the shelter is offering two-for-one adoption deals on some of them.

Monday, Shelter Director Jeff Roberts said the shelter is currently housing over 225 cats and dogs, well beyond the 150 -animal capacity that the shelter is designed for.

And because most of the overcrowding is in the cat adoption area, he says they are not taking in any more cats or kittens for the time being.

“Earlier this year, we took in 38 cats and that kind of threw us over the edge,” Roberts said. “And we’ve been still been struggling since then to manage the number of animals coming into the shelter. I had to bring the issue to my board last week and we made the decision to close admission to cats until we can get then down to a number where we can provide adequate care for additional animals.”

Roberts said the shelter is offering the Adopt One, Get One Free deal for cats and kittens, which he says will continue until they have more space available.

“For both kittens and adults, it’s adopt one, get one free. It’s always good to adopt a pair of cats or kittens so they can bond with eachother. So, it’s good to adopt a pair anyway, but this weay we’re hoping to get more animals out of the shelter,” he said.

All cats and kittens have been spayed or neutered, they’ve been microchipped, are current on their vaccinations, they’re on flea preventative and the cats come with a bag of food and a certificate for a free health examination.

The adoption fee for kittens is $75 and $60 for adult cats.

Right now, the shelter has about 100 dogs and 130 cats and kittens.

He says they hope to be able to send some of the dogs to no-kill rescue groups in other states where they will have a better chance of being adopted into a new home.

“We actually have about 20 dogs going to New Jersey Tuesday,” Roberts said. “And next week we’re sending about 10-25 dogs going to a no-kill shelter in North Myrtle Beach, NC. So, dogs we’ve been successful and we’re hoping we won’t have to close admission to dogs, but it depends on the numbers that come in. So dogs we can manage, but cats are our biggest challenge.”

Roberts said the shelter offers low-cost spay/neuter certificates to residents of Stephens County and while they have been able to spay and neuter around 1,000 animals, pet overpopulation in the County especially with cats, is still a big problem.

The Toccoa-Stephens County Humane Shelter is located on Scenic Drive next to the Stephens County Jail and is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11a to 6p.

For more information on adoptable animals or the low-cost spay/neuter certificates, you can go online to their Facebook page or call the shelter at 706-282-3275.