Saturday is Cinco de Mayo, but at Orange County Animal Services, it’s also Cinco de Meow. The agency will reduce adoption fees to $5 for all cats and kittens.  During the warm summer months, the shelter sees huge spikes in cat populations, and this is when adopters are needed most. The promotion reduces cat adoption fees from the usual rate of $40 to just $5, making it more affordable than ever to bring home a loving gato or gatito. Limit two per household.

“We consider the summer months to be ‘kitten season,’ and with the increase in cat population this time of year, we need homes for these animals more than ever,” said Dil Luther, division manager of Orange County Animal Services. “This is the first time we’ve done a Cinco de Meow promotion, and we’re hoping for a great turnout from the community on Saturday.”

Each cat adoption includes spay/neuter, initial vaccinations, microchip identification, deworming, FLV/FIV test, rabies vaccination and Adoption Welcome Kit.

Orange County Animal Services is located at 2769 Conroy Road in Orlando near the Mall at Millenia.

For more information, call 407-254-9140 or visit ocnetpets.com.

Meanwhile, Pet Rescue by Judy says on its website that it has chosen to withdraw from this challenge but is competing in another. Go to this link for more information on that.

Good luck to everyone!

 The advocacy group Alley Cat Allies has organized a protest for Saturday in Orlando in the wake of  Loews Hotels’ decision to move ahead with the removal of feral-cat colonies from its hotels’ grounds.

The group, in addition to a petition drive, is asking protesters to come to the corner of Universal Boulevard and Vineland Road from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday to voice their opposition to the handling of the situation. 

“We remain steadfast in our calls to stop the trap and remove process — and embrace the humane solution that was already working on their properties: Trap-Neuter-Return,” the group said on its website.

Learn  more at alleycat.org.

Alley Cat Allies is leading a protest on Saturday in Orlando regarding Loews’ treatment of its feral cats. Click on this link for all the information you need on how to join in the protest.

You can spin a wheel of good fortune for yourself and a shelter animal during  Orange County Animal Services’ weeklong adoption promotion in honor of National Animal Control Appreciation Week, which runs through Saturday. 

Adopters will spin the Promo Wheel to receive a reduced adoption fee: free, $10, $20 or $30.

“We’ve used the Promo Wheel in the past, and it was a huge hit with adopters,” said Dil Luther, division manager of Orange County Animal Services. “We’re hoping it gets people excited about coming to our shelter so we can reach our goal of finding loving families for at least 100 homeless pets. We’re counting on our community supporters once again to help us spread the word!”  

“We’re so thankful for the support we’ve received from the community,” said Luther. “We have so many wonderful volunteers, foster parents, rescue partners, donors and fans. This adoption promotion is our way of saying thank you to all of those individuals and encouraging animal lovers to adopt. Many of the animals at our shelter right now are staff favorites, and we want to do everything we can to save them.”

 Each adoption includes spay/neuter, initial vaccinations, microchip identification, deworming, heartworm test (dogs) or FLV/FIV test (cats), rabies vaccination, 5-lb. bag of Science Diet food and Adoption Welcome Kit.  

Orange County Animal Services is located at 2769 Conroy Road in Orlando near the Mall at Millenia. The facility is open for adoptions Monday–Friday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, call 407- 254-9140 or visit ocnetpets.com.

Just a reminder that you can vote once a day every day through April 16 to help Pet Rescue by Judy and Seminole County Animal Services make the cut to be eligible for the ASPCA/Rachael Ray $100,000 challenge, which will award grants to various shelters. I am certain all the shelters around the country that are competing are deserving of grants. I wish every single one could get that much-needed boost.

Click on this link to go to the voting site.

Another area shelter that is participating in the ASPCA grant challenge that I wrote about needs our votes too! 

Here’s the information from Pet Rescue by Judy:

You can help one of central Florida’s largest NO KILL shelters win the Rachael Ray challenge by going to PETRECSUEBYJUDY.com and voting for us.  We desperately want to save more animals and stop the problem of over population by building a low cost spay/neuter clinic!  Won’t you help us by being a LIFESAVER!!

Click on this link to go to Pet Rescue by Judy for all the info you need on how to vote, and remember, you can vote once every day starting right now through April 16.

Here’s some much-needed good news on the topic of pet adoption. Read on for the inspiring examples of compassion in this news release from the ASPCA:
NEW YORK—The ASPCA® (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today announced that 224 animal welfare groups in 53 communities across the country found homes for 6,144 animals during the ASPCA’s first-ever ASPCA ‘Mega Match-a-thon’ weekend from March 30 through April 1. The ASPCA granted $492,250 to support a host of large-scale adoption events held nationwide in an effort to save more lives of shelter animals.

“It really was inspiring to watch the collaboration among different rescue organizations in a community,” said ASPCA President & CEO Ed Sayres. “They reached out to their local media, spread the word to their supporters through social media, and showcased the amazing animals they have up for adoption. And over the three-day event, they got together and saved a record number of lives.”

“There were so many standout moments from the weekend that it’s hard to choose just one,” added Julie Morris, senior vice president of community outreach for the ASPCA. “Columbia, Mo.’s Mega Match-a-thon event got an extra boost from the oldest volunteer, 96-year-old Wilma Bader, who helped No-Kill Columbia prep for the event by clipping color-coded Meet Your MatchTM adopter passes; The Humane Society for Southwest Washington in Vancouver, Wash. broke their own record for the most adoptions in a single day (44) within the first two hours of their event; Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston, Maine sped the adoptions process along – and got more animals into homes – with the use of iPad® devices by their adoptions counselors; Bangor Humane Society in Bangor, Maine closed up early and went home after running out of animals; Rubbles, a 12-year-old blind Shih Tzu, was adopted from the Humane Society of Greater Miami in Miami, Fla. by a local soldier; and Riverside County Department of Animal Services in Riverside, Calif. is currently trying to determine if the more than 400 animals they adopted that weekend broke a record.”

A portion of the funding for the ASPCA Mega Match-a-thon event comes as a result of the ASPCA’s participation in the fourth annual Subaru “Share the Love” event. The ASPCA received $1.4 million in funding from Subaru of America, Inc. as a result of its participation in “Share the Love.” Sixty-two percent of the donation the ASPCA received already has been earmarked for the ASPCA’s “Share the Love” Grant Program for shelters in all 50 states.  To-date, approximately $884,000 has been distributed to local shelters. In addition to supporting the ASPCA’s ASPCA Mega Match-a-thon event, Subaru supports other key ASPCA initiatives including Team ASPCA and the National Spay/Neuter project.

Starting today, it’s quick and easy to help Seminole County Animal Services become eligible to receive money to help save more animals. Here are the details from the shelter’s Diane Gagliano:

THE HOMELESS ANIMALS OF SEMINOLE COUNTY NEED YOUR HELP….  April 5 through April 16

Help Seminole County Animal Services get into the ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge
The $100K Challenge is an amazing opportunity for animal shelters all over the country to save more lives and get rewarded for it. It’s a competition that inspires shelters and their communities to come up with innovative ways to save at least 300 more dogs and cats within a three-month period than were saved during the same three months the year before. And in the process of saving these precious lives the shelter can win between $5,000 and $125,000!  Our staff and volunteers are raring to take a shot at saving more lives than we ever have before, but we need your help.

The only way for Seminole County Animal Services to get into the $100K Challenge is for YOU to vote for us. We need votes from everyone in our wonderful community and those outside our community who are friends of animal services and the people who work so hard to help rehome these wonderful animals. The competition will be fierce, because from April 5 through April 16 almost 200 other shelters nationwide will be vying to get into the Challenge, only 50 are going to be accepted, and they will be the ones with the most votes from their community. We need you to go www.Votetosavelives.org   and vote. We need you to vote EVERY DAY! No matter what it takes you must get those votes in daily think every time you vote for us there are homeless animals in our shelter who will have hope…HOPE that this competition will propel them into the new home they very much deserve. Send the link to your friends and family members it doesn’t matter where they live their click of the mouse will help a dog or a cat…or both. Tell them to vote so we can save more lives. It takes less than a minute to vote each day and your voting will get us into position to save at least 300 more lives this year… The money the shelter can win is huge but the lives they can save with this challenge will impact the lives of so many animals in our community. 300 or more saved lives in 3 months. 300 or more wagging tails and purring hearts entering their new fur-ever homes. Please commit to voting every day to get Seminole County Animal Services into the top 50 for this challenge. Then watch for HUGE things to come as Animal Services finds creative and innovative ways to promote adoptions and save more lives than ever before.

Vote for us every day from April 5 through April 16 at www.votetosavelives.org.

The SpayNSave group will have a yard sale Saturday to raise funds for its new spay/neuter clinic.  It’s focusing on money for a dog run now and has been collecting donated items from friends, family members and the community for the past several months and has a lot of goodies to sell. Among the items to choose from will be furniture, games, electronics, decorative items, pet items and more. The event is from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the future location of the clinic: 988 N. Highway 427 (Ronald Reagan Boulevard) in Longwood. 

Also, the group has been informed by Humane Alliance, its mentoring organization, that it is approved for the PetSmart Charities $80,000 equipment grant.  Once it has those funds, it can begin purchasing medical equipment and supplies and getting ready for the opening in late May.