PLANT CITY, Fla. – Nine county and municipal shelters from across the Tampa Bay region will participate in a mega-adoption event that will bring hundreds of dogs to the Florida Strawberry Festival Fairgrounds May 17-19.
In addition to Hillsborough County, available dogs will come from shelters in Pasco, Polk, Sumter, Orange, Hernando, Manatee, Pinellas, and Marion counties, creating a diverse selection of more than 300 adoption-ready dogs each day.
The dogs will be vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and microchipped, with all adoption and associated fees waived.
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The free mega-adoption event will be held at the Grimes Family Agricultural Center, 2508 W. Oak Ave., Plant City, FL 33563, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
To allow preparation and staffing for the event, the Pet Resource Center, 440 N. Falkenburg Rd., Tampa, FL 33619, will be closed to the public Thursday and have limited services Friday and Saturday.
Shelters across the country have been housing record-breaking numbers of dogs in recent years. That trend is reflected at shelters across West-Central Florida, which are consistently operating well above capacity. The Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center is currently at about 140 percent of capacity for dogs; some have been at the shelter more than 100 days.
The event is made possible through support from the Pet Resources Foundation, Team Godwin Foundation, Friends of Animals Services — Pasco County, Orange County Animal Services, and the Florida Strawberry Festival.
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