SCA to hold free adoption weekend

The animal shelter in lower base needs immediate repairs after the roof and walls were torn off by Typhoon Soudelor last Aug. 2. (Jon Perez)

The Saipan Cares for Animals has scheduled a Free Adoption Weekend on Feb. 6 and 7 at the animal shelter in Lower Base. It will be a whole day affair with more than 30 dogs up for adoption,

SCA president Jason Hudy said with the spay and neuter program ending tomorrow, they had put for adoption dogs who underwent the procedure. Guam veterinarians Dr. Jennifer Landis and technician Bambi Leone has been assisting local animal volunteers and staff of the Saipan Mayor’s Office Animal Control Office with the spay and neuter program.

More than 100 dogs have been either spayed or neutered since Landis and Leone arrived on Saipan last month.

“Now that all of our dogs are sterilized SCA will pay for your adoption [fee] for [this] weekend only. We’re going to have a “Free Adoption Weekend” on Saturday and Sunday [Feb. 6 and 7]. We are going to tie this in with the end of the spay and neuter clinic,” said Hudy.

Hudy added that they decided to hold the Free Adoption Weekend to reduce the number of dogs at the Shelter, which is awaiting renovation and other repair after Typhoon Soudelor tore its roof and parts of its walls.

Volunteers have been taking care of the dogs by regularly feeding and giving them medicine. The volunteers along with the staff of the Saipan Mayor’s Office’s Animal Control Office also put up tents and covered the cages with tarp to keep the animals dry especially when it rains.

“The real reason we are doing this is we are over capacity with the number of dogs we have. Dogs keep coming in, so we want to have a major adoption push,” said Hudy.

The Saipan Mayor’s Office is waiting for the completion of the needed paperwork in order to begin the bidding process for the Animal Shelter renovation project. Saipan Mayor’s Office special assistant Henry Hofschneider, in an earlier interview, said that the condition of the animal shelter is like building a new one.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded $300,000 for the repair of the animal shelter, which is near the estimate that the Saipan Mayor’s Office submitted when they applied for the public assistance program. The CNMI central government would release FEMA’s monetary aid.

Rodney Babauta, Lee Mark Deleon Guerrero, Ton Leon Guerrero and Jaime Toytoy are the staff of the Saipan Mayor’s Office Animal Control Office. They have been patrolling the streets and catching stray dogs.