The noise inside the Charlie Grimes Family Agricultural Building at the Florida Strawberry Festival was booming this weekend but not with the sounds of mooing cows or oinking pigs. Instead, it was filled with the barking, howling and growling of hundreds of dogs from eight municipal and county shelters that were up for adoption at the Petco Love Mega Pet Adoption Event.
Animal lovers from multiple counties started lining up hours before the doors opened Friday at noon to meet the hundreds of dogs available for adoption, hoping for a love-at-first-sight experience.
Zephyrhills resident Elaine Wade arrived before 10 a.m. and was the third person in line. After entering the venue, she quickly spied a one-year-old mixed breed dog. After spending some time with her in a designated play area, she decided she was going to adopt the pooch and name her Sophie. “I wanted a smaller female dog but they don’t have really small dogs because they get adopted really fast,” she said. “I’m lonely, I’m old and I want something to love and here she is.”
Valrico residents Romaldo and Paula Williams and their son Ryan had been looking for a second dog for months. “We saw this advertised and decided to come out and found a dog,” said Paula. “I sure hope he gets along with our other dog.”
Plant City residents Isabelle and Alexis Aguilera attended the event hoping to find their dog Simba, who’d run away two weeks ago. “We thought maybe he’d be here, we’ve had him since he was a puppy,” said Isabelle.
While they didn’t find Simba, they did find Mark, a four-year-old bulldog mixed breed dog. “My wife fell in love with him and immediately wanted to take him home,” said Isabelle.
Mark was adopted by the Aguileras. “This is great what they’re doing here but it makes me sad being here,” said Isabelle. “I want to take them all home but we can’t.”
In total 241 dogs from shelters in eight counties were adopted last weekend as families happily filled out adoption paperwork, their faces beaming with joy as they welcomed their new four-legged family members.
Pet Resource Center Division Director Earl Brown, who said his shelter was running at 140 percent capacity for dogs, expressed his gratitude to the team of animal care professionals and volunteers who helped make the event possible and the generous support of the non-profit partners, including PETCO Love, Pet Resource Foundation, Friends of Animals Services- Pasco County, Florida Leaders in Lifesaving, the Team Godwin Foundation and Super Dog Outfitters, that helped with funding to secure the venue and get the word out to residents. “I also want to give a great big thank you to Mozell and Nichole at the Florida Strawberry Festival for hosting us at their amazing venue,” he said.
Brown called the three-day event a success.
“We saved 241 lives this weekend at the Strawberry Festival and as our first of this size, I couldn’t be more pleased,” he said.. “It was a super success and we plan to do something again next spring.”