Maricopa County animal shelter looking for foster homes for 119 dogs
As temperatures reach 110 degrees several days in a row and seemingly no end in sight, Maricopa County Animal Care & Control (MCACC) is launching a “Make a Splash” Summer Foster Event to help dogs chill out during this heat wave.
“There is not much to do in Arizona this time of year but sit inside in the air conditioning, why not do that with a new furry friend?” said Kim Powell, Communications Officer with MCACC. “By fostering a dog this summer, you can help them take a vacation from the shelter and hopefully help us find their forever home.”
With the record high temperature clocking in at 118 degrees so far this year, MCACC is challenging the community to get 118 dogs into a foster home by August 1st.
The goal is for the dogs to stay in their foster home until they find an adopter or until high temperatures dip under 100 degrees to help prevent shelter overcrowding. Of course, fosters can keep the dogs longer if they’d like.
MCACC has been operating beyond capacity since June and currently has approximately 800 dogs in their care. Unfortunately, there are not enough kennels to house this many dogs.
“In order to create more kennel space, we’ve had to split some kennels into two—meaning one dog is on the inside, and one dog is on the outside with swamp coolers and large fans blowing on them. In this scorching heat, that is not ideal,” said Powell. “The Make a Splash Summer Foster Event aims to lower our shelter capacity so no dogs are on the outside of a kennel, and instead they’re in a nice air-conditioned home.”
Dogs eligible to go into foster are at least one years old, 30lbs+, and already altered.
Potential fosters must complete a foster application before coming to the shelter to select an appropriate foster for their family. Fosters can pick up their new furry friend at either shelter location between 12pm-3pm, daily, from Sunday, July 23rd to August 1st.
Fostering is a rewarding way to help animals in Maricopa County while they wait for their forever homes.
It has been a historically hot Arizona summer, help MCACC get a historic number of dogs into foster care!