Animal news

New San Antonio event helps empty animal shelters with discounted pet adoptions

Bring a puppy, kitten, or both home this weekend for as little as $25.

Courtesy photo

San Antonio residents who want to welcome a new furry friend into their home can do so at a discount at this weekend's Empty the Shelters event.

Taking place from July 10-12, the initiative is part of a nationwide program sponsored by the Bissell Pet Foundation. The organization is working with adoption agencies across Texas to reduce fees to give cats and dogs forever homes with reduced adoption fees.

In San Antonio, the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services is the only participating shelter. Throughout the weekend, all ACS dog adoption fees are $15 and all cat adoption fees are $5. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all adoption appointments must be made in advance. Reserve an appointment here.

In the early days of the pandemic, pet adoptions rose nationwide as people found themselves living under stay-at-home orders. But those statistics have leveled off, leaving thousands of cats and dogs without homes. Bissell notes that foster families stepped in fill the gap, and this weekend's adoption event will also honor foster-to-adopt cases that start as fosters during the weekend of July 10-12 and are finalized up to one week after the event.

The timing for the adoption push is simple.

“More pets run away on the Fourth of July than any other day of the year,” said Cathy Bissell, founder of Bissell Pet Foundation in a release. “The increase in shelter intake puts pressure on our partners, who are already working with limited staff and funding due to COVID-19. The best way for us to support them is to help their pets find loving homes.”

Those interested in bringing home a pet can visit Bissell's Empty the Shelters site for more details and check the Dallas Animal Services site for information on appointments and operating hours. All animals included in the Empty the Shelters promotion will be microchipped and spayed/neutered to prevent further pet homelessness.

Since the program began in 2016, Empty the Shelters has found homes for 37,394 pets and counting. During the COVID-19 pandemic alone, 6,231 pets were adopted during two previous Empty the Shelters events.

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SPARE ART

North San Antonio gets crafty with new creative supplies shop

Photo by Ismael Rodriguez.

Local nonprofit Spare Parts recently opened its brick-and-mortar center for creative reuse.

One local nonprofit organization has spent years getting environmental accountability and community education down to a fine art. And now it’s getting crafty with a new brick-and-mortar shop in North San Antonio aimed to help locals to go green.

Spare Parts was founded in 2010 by executive director and longtime arts educator Mary Elizabeth Cantú to provide a creative spark for area students and schools lacking arts funding and resources. Through a variety of educational programs, public art exhibitions, events, and the organization’s traveling Mini Art Museum, Spare Parts has enlightened thousands of students and San Antonians, all while fostering reuse practices and sustainability, a key tenet of the nonprofit.

Spare Parts’ latest endeavor is another artistic triumph. Its new center for creative reuse, located at 13451 Wetmore Rd., is nothing less than a crafter’s delight. The shop features an impressive array of “pre-loved” and price-reduced artsy merchandise — from paint supplies and paper crafts to sewing items, beading and jewelry, school and office supplies, vintage gadgets, and crafting kits — all of which has been rescued from area landfills.

Cantú notes that proceeds from the new Spare Parts’ shop will enable the organization to further increase creative and educational experiences for San Antonio students and families. But even more so, she hopes the shop will help locals embrace the concept that one person’s trash can be another’s artistic treasure.

“There really isn’t any more room in the world for this stuff. Buying pre-loved at places like Spare Parts or other stores is a way to reduce the amount of things [people] feel that they need,” Cantú said in a recent interview with the San Antonio Sentinel. “We’re challenging people to rethink things around them, buy pre-loved, and find a way to be creative in their lives.”

In the time of COVID-19, however, getting the creative juices flowing isn’t as simple as popping into the Spare Parts shop. Though the center for creative reuse is open, the store is currently offering only weekend curbside pickup of items ordered through its website. But crafters shouldn’t despair, as Spare Parts is offering private in-person shopping experiences in the new year, with the first planned for January 16 and 17.

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