Oklahoma City’s Animal Shelter encourages residents and animal lovers to adopt a dog and/or cat during its reopening event Sept. 22.

Dog and cat adoption fees are waived to help relieve overcapacity at the Shelter. All adoptable dogs and cats are up-to-date on vaccinations, microchipped, treated for worms and spayed or neutered.

“We are asking the community to help us get below capacity so that we can open for intake,” OKC Animal Welfare Superintendent Jon Gary said.

The Shelter, 2811 SE 29th St., will only be open for adoptions noon-5 p.m. on Sept. 22 and 23, and will not be available to intake animals. The shelter will open Sept. 26 for intake, but intake will be limited to 30 dogs per day as the Shelter is currently at 138% capacity for dogs and 113% capacity for cats.

People who find a lost pet are advised to provide the pet with temporary housing and look for the owner through lost animal reports on okc.gov/animalwelfare, Facebook, Nextdoor and Craigslist.

Situation background and update

On Aug. 22, the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter closed for the third time this year because of a contagious upper respiratory infection that spread to about 100 dogs.

The OKC Animal Shelter staff pulled samples from their ill dog population on the day the shelter closed to send those samples to a third-party lab. The test results came back negative for the canine flu.

“Even with the negative canine flu test results, we are seeing the same type of virus and bacteria linked with upper respiratory infections (URI),” Gary said. “Managing the kennel population is essential to keeping illness outbreaks to a minimum.”

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Media Contact: Jon Gary (405) 297-3116 jonathan.gary@okc.gov