Animal shelters working together

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Less animals would be without homes leading to less animals being euthanized if everyone spayed and neutered their pets.

That's the mission of a local organization First Coast No More Homeless Pets.

Their latest initiative involves a partnership with the Nassau County Animal Control to make sure more cats and dogs get adopted.

Veterinarians at FCNMHP are spaying and neutering all of the adoptable animals at Nassau County Animal Control in hopes this will help get more animals adopted this weekend.

The dogs at FCNMHP have already been or are waiting to be spayed or neutered.

Many of them are living at the Nassau County Animal Control Facility, waiting for someone to give them a forever home.

"We prefer to get them sterilized before they're adopted because it cuts down on the number of people who delay the procedure," FCNMHP medical director Kelly Farrell said. "There will be accidental litters or they forget. All together it needs to be done and get them sterilized."

The nonprofit center and Nassau County have teamed up over the last few days with vets working to spay or neuter about 75 animals currently at the shelter.

"That helps to get more pets adopted quicker because the cost is lower because we're covering the cost of spay and neuter," FCNMHP founder and director Rick Ducharme said. "Also because people can take the pet home as soon as they see it, rather then having to wait for it to come here and get spayed or neutered."

Because of this, the shelter is able to offer a special adoption rate at only $35 dollars. Plus they'll already be vaccinated and micro-chipped too.

"We worked with Clay County Animal Control on the same type of program to help them get started and they were actually able to keep spay and neutering pets before they made them available for adoption and its helped dramatically increase the number of adoptions they do for the shelter," Ducharme said.

For anyone interested in adopting a dog or cat, Nassau County Animal Control is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Rriday and 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

When the shelter runs out of room, they do have to euthanize, so FCNMHP hopes getting these animals spayed and neutered will get more adopted and prevent others from being put down.