HOULTON, Maine — Tractor Supply Company store at 337 North St. in Houlton hosted a pet adoption event on Saturday with members of the Houlton Humane Society on hand with many pets looking for new homes.
“Tractor Supply is a huge partner and supporter of all animal rescue groups and are greatly appreciated by Houlton Humane and others,” said Cathy Davis, secretary for the HHS board. “They do regular adoption events throughout the year and are extremely helpful in placing animals and getting the word out about spaying and neutering and other issues.”
Davis said the shelter currently has “a lot” of animals looking for new homes.
“Unfortunately what happens in the spring is people start finding abandoned kittens in boxes, by the side of the road,” she explained. “It’s awful what people do. We get them and a lot of times they are not even old enough to be off their mothers, so if we don’t have a nursing cat in residence, we have to send kittens home with foster families, they have to get up every couple hours all night long to bottle feed these babies. Long story short is this is the time of year we need to gear up for that and try to place as many shelter kitties as we can so we have room when that hits.”
Adopt-a-thons like the one sponsored by Tractor Supply, are a valuable tool for shelters to place animals.
“So many people fear walking into a shelter because they think they will fall in love with everything and that seeing animals in cages will break their hearts,” Davis said. “If they come to the shelter they will find a totally different environment, happy critters romping in the community room, climbing around and having a great time playing, but people don’t realize that so sometimes they don’t come. But when in a ‘retail’ environment like Tractor Supply, it’s like going to a pet store and who can resist stopping by and talking baby talk to critters in pet stores? So this really gives these sweet babies more exposure and more opportunity to be adopted.”
“Pet adoption days are exciting at Tractor Supply,” said Whitney Brannen, manager of the Houlton Tractor Supply store. “Not only do we get to help families take home a great pet, but we also get to support our community adoption partners who are working hard to care for homeless dogs and cats.”
Only one pet was adopted during the event.
Tractor Supply partners with rescues and shelters to host pet adoption events throughout the year. Organizations interested in becoming an animal adoption partner should register at TSCEventPartners.com, contact the store by phone at 207-532-3625, or visit the store at 337 North Street.
For information and tips on raising pets and other animals, visit TractorSupply.com/KnowHow or visit the Houlton Humane Society website http://www.houltonhumanesociety.org/.
