GILROY—Over the weekend, 128 animals at the San Martin Animal Shelter found new homes as part of the adoption fair sponsored by a national nonprofit.
Of all the animals adopted between May 30 and 31 for the third-annual event held at the shelter at 12370 Murphy Ave., including 91 cats and 37 dogs, some had medical conditions that may have prevented them from being adopted sooner, according to Shelter Supervisor Lisa Jenkins.
One man drove two hours from his out-of-town home to the shelter after seeing an elderly cat online that suffered with bone cancer and needed to have a leg amputated but had been sitting in the shelter for months, she said.
Some came to pick up their first pet or grow their family, while others offered to serve as “foster parents” for the animals. Crowds gathered outside the facility and stood in long lines, waiting to pick out a pet.
“We get the kind of people who want the ones really in need during this event,” she said. “It’s people who are really animal lovers who see this as a good opportunity to welcome a pet into their lives and we get some very compassionate people.”
The nonprofit group Maddie’s Fund, in exchange for waived adoption fees for dogs and cats over the weekend, provides the San Martin Animal Shelter with hundreds of dollars for each animal adopted.
Jenkins said the shelter expects to receive approximately $50,000 for this weekend’s adoption fair, surpassing last year’s totals of $35,000 and 76 pets adopted.
The shelter competed with some of the “big dogs” and held its own when comparing the results, she added.
San Jose-based Animal Care and Services is approximately 10 times the size of the San Martin shelter, and adopted 180 animals.
“For us to be somewhere near their ballpark at a facility 10 times smaller in size feels really good,” Jenkins said.
The funding the Santa Clara County-operated San Martin Animal Shelter receives from Maddie’s Fund will support emergency medical care for animals that are brought in and pay for equipment that enriches the animals’ lives, she added.
“We also get individual donations, which are a huge help, but no one donor can equal the amount we get from Maddie’s Fund for this weekend,” the shelter supervisor said. “We do have a very generous community but that’s a huge chunk of money.”
The county organization has come to rely on the money Maddie’s Fund and the adoption fairs generate, which this year has topped all previous years, Jenkins said. It also helps save lives.
Over the weekend, a dog was brought in that was completely unresponsive. Staff didn’t think the animal was alive.
But thanks to the funding from last year’s event, the animal was stabilized by a local veterinary clinic and the shelter’s staff veterinarian, according to Jenkins.
“We never thought he would survive, let alone come to,” she said, adding the funding also pays for blood work that helps diagnose underlying medical conditions.
Jenkins gave an example of an older cat that arrived at the San Martin facility grossly emaciated and appeared to have organ failure.
But results of the blood test showed the animal had no underlying conditions and staff nursed the animal back to health; a creature that, had blood work not been performed, may have had its suffering put to an end.
“A decision could have been made (to put it down) if we didn’t have the blood work results that confirmed the animal was indeed healthy,” Jenkins said. “It’s a huge help.”
Back at the shelter on May 31, young Shane Gillespie picked out his first cat, a young black kitten he named Bree, cuddling her on his shoulder. He took her home later that day.
It’s those experiences the shelter staff members hope to recreate, and events like those sponsored by Maddie’s Fund help empty the often-overcrowded shelter. The shelter waives adoption fees for cats 7-months and older all year when the shelter is well past capacity.
“The energy you feel during the event is indescribable,” Jenkins said. “As the number (of sheltered pets) goes down and you see people happy with their new animal, it’s just an amazing feeling. We wish we could replicate it every single day.”
