The Humane Society of Utah is celebrating reaching their 2014 pet placement goals a month early this week.
Jamie Usry, director of developments at the Humane Society, said the group reached their goal of adopting out 9,000 dogs and cats, and are also set to meet their aim of spaying and neutering 10,000 animals later this month.
Usry said the organization opened a new dog area in May called The Wait is Over, Rover dog adoptions to save the lives of more dogs in their care.
“After our new dog area opened, we saw an increase in adoptions over the last few months on dogs of 37 percent,” Usry said.
Usry said for a pet to be placed means the animal has been transferred to a better situation.
“A placement of a cat and dog means that we’ve either adopted it into a new home, we’ve returned it to its previous owner, or we have transferred it to a local rescue group that can better handle adopting the pet out,” Usry said.
In addition to their success with feline and canine adoption, the center has also adopted out 500 small animals including rabbits, rats and mice, according to Usry.
Usry said the Humane Society is hoping to have a good closing month for placement this year, as adoption rates tend go up in December, and hit their new goal of placing 10,000 cats and dogs. She said the Humane Society also is hoping to receive enough holiday supply donations to take them into the first few months of next year.