Best Friends Animal Society encouraged New Yorkers to “bring love home” at an April 30 pop-up playpen in Times Square.
Photos by Lauren Rapp
Puppies tumbled, played, and ran into visitors’ arms at a pop-up living room and backyard playpen in the heart of Times Square for National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day on April 30. The event was organized by Best Friends Animal Society, a leading animal welfare organization working to end the operation of kill shelters, and featured dozens of adoptable pups looking for their fur-ever home.
Many happy New Yorkers turn out to the Times Square playpen, cooing and extending their arms out to the rambunctious pups.
Adoptees Razzel and Reeses were quick to be adopted as the event started by families excitedly welcoming a new member into their homes.
Kicking off the group’s “Bring Love Home” campaign, organizers did everything they could to make the adoption process easy by waiving any adoption fees for the day. Puppies and their new owners got to pose on the pop-up living room couch to get a quick family photo before going off to their new homes.
Kerry McKeel, marketing and communications strategist for the animal society, shared there has been a steady decline in the adoption of shelter pets across the country over the last couple of years. The organization hopes immersive events like this will help encourage people to consider adopting shelter animals.
“We truly believe pets like Bella belong in homes and not shelters,” McKeel said while holding a three-month-old pup named Bella.
Best Friends works to drive home their motto, “save them all,” and advocates to end the practice of kill shelters nationwide. Mckeel noted that this may not be too lofty of a goal, stating around 7 million people are expected to acquire pets this year.
“If only 6% of those 7 million people adopt a pet, we can end shelter killing,” she said.
Best Friends also works to combat the statistic that every 90 seconds a shelter pet is euthanized.
“Pets don’t belong in shelters, they belong at home,” said Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society. “Our ‘Bring Love Home’ campaign is designed to bring awareness to dogs and cats still being killed in U.S. shelters simply because they don’t have safe places to call home.”
If you missed their pop-up event, Best Friends Society has many adoptable cats and dogs at the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center located in SoHo, 307 W. Broadway. The organization also has a wealth of resources for adoptable animals, with accurate data sets for shelter animals across the United States with over 7,900 rescue groups and shelters and partner adoption organizations found on their website.
