JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The executive director of First Coast No More Homeless Pets announced the organization is closing its Mandarin adoption center January 1 to focus on large, occasional adoption events in association with Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services and the Jacksonville Humane Society.
FCNMHP founder and director Rick DuCharme wrote a memo earlier this the month saying the decision was made after several successful mega-adoption events in collaboration with the city and the Humane Society resulted making November the group's first no-kill month, adopting out more than 90 percent of the dogs and cats entering its shelter.
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"This renewed focus on adoptions helped us create other initiatives that were even more effective and economical at finding homes for the homeless pets in our care," DuCharme wrote.
The group took over the Mandarin adoption center from the city a year ago, saying it was "desperately needed to ensure we found enough homes to be effective in our mission."
Since that time, they've found larger, high-profile adoption events are a more cost-effective in saving homeless animals.
"The recent Home for the Holidays Mega Adoption event found homes for 838 dogs and cats, which is about the same amount of pets saved through the adoption center in one year," DuCharme wrote. "Based on the high cost of the operation of the adoption center in Mandarin, we are re-focusing our efforts on these higher impact adoption events and other programs."
The group says animals at the adoption center will be adopted out and will not be negatively impacted.