The Minneapolis Animal Care and Control (MACC) shelter received $14,000 in grants in October and is hosting a “Clear the Shelter” to address the recurring at-capacity issues in the shelter.

The Clear the Shelter event will give Minneapolis residents a cost-effective way to get a pet while helping alleviate stress at the shelter. The event will run from 1 to 5 p.m. on Oct. 25 and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 26 at the MACC. 

MACC is at capacity and has been for the past year, according to Tony Schendel, MACC director. MACC is one of many animal shelters nationwide in a growing trend of at-capacity shelters due to increased pet abandonments during the pandemic.

Madison Weissenborn, volunteer and community outreach coordinator for the MACC, said an at-capacity shelter is always stressful on staff and especially animals because of the close quarters and isolation the pets experience.

Weissenborn said that animal health and well-being at these shelters are still good because of how well the shelter’s volunteers take care of the animals.

“They get them out of their kennels, they get, honestly they go on more walks than my own dogs at home,” Weissenborn said. “But they also take part in things like enrichment, so making (the animals) mentally sound.” 

Schendel said the goal of MACC’s Clear the Shelter event is to place as many pets as possible into good homes and alleviate some of the stress on the other animals and shelter staff.

“Our staff would then be able to focus their efforts on providing better care and enrichment and more rehabilitative care for the animals that are in our care that sometimes require substantial amounts of work we have to spend with them before they’re ready to hit the adoption floor,” Schendel said.

Grants to MACC deliver relief to shelter workers and pets

This is not the first time the city shelter has received funding to tackle at-capacity concerns. 

The city invested more than $600,000 in MACC in February to help relieve the at-capacity strain by hiring more staff and purchasing supplies for animals.

Schendel said the February investment was hugely beneficial for MACC, allowing them to hire two new staff members and reopen Saturday adoption hours for the first time in at least four years.

In addition to the city’s investment, the MACC received two grants in October to help waive adoption fees and first-time impound fees at their upcoming adoption event.

Subaru Loves Pets worked with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to award the MACC $4,000 to waive adoption fees, said Ryan Wickes, a spokesperson for the Minneapolis zone of Subaru.

Subaru Loves Pets is the car retailer’s initiative to help house shelter animals and, in partnership with the ASPCA, work with local shelters to improve adoption efforts every October, according to their website.

“It is a little bit different this year than last year for our retailers,” Wickes said. “In the past, they’ve done kind of like an in-store adoption event and donated $100 per pet adopted throughout the course of the month.”

This year, Subaru is going to the shelter and helping the MACC with the Clear the Shelter event, Wickes said. Subaru will give out “new pet parent kits” for the first 10 pets adopted on Friday as well as other Subaru-branded giveaway items like dog toys, water bowls and leashes.

“We’re just basically on-site to support them and make the event a little bit more fun for people that are there to support it,” Wickes said.

The MACC received a $10,000 grant from Best Friends Animal Society to help return lost pets who end up at the shelter to their owners, Best Friends Society Central Director Stacy Rogers said. 

“We wanted to make sure that that wasn’t a barrier to them being able to get their pets back,” Rogers said.

The Best Friends Animal Society began as a no-kill shelter, which eventually grew to be the largest in the country, Rogers said. Today, the Society has expanded to develop regional programs.

“In the regional programs, we really go in and help local shelters just figure out how they can save more lives, whether it’s through grants or boots on the ground,” Rogers said. 

The Best Friends Animal Society has awarded grant money to the MACC in the past, Rogers said. With the stress an at-capacity shelter puts on a pet, Rogers said help from everyone is needed.

“(The MACC) are trying extremely hard for the pets that are in their care, so we definitely encourage anybody looking at the Twin Cities to go out and look at them for adoption, or if their pet is missing to make sure it’s not there as a lost pet,” Rogers said

Weissenborn said a successful Clear the Shelter event would mean more people knowing about MACC and how they offer low-cost pet adoptions.

“In reality, I will take whatever I can get and one adoption makes me happy at the end of the day,” Weissenborn said.

Dogs and cats older than 6 months are free to adopt for Minneapolis residents plus the cost of a city pet license, according to the MACC website. Adopting a dog costs $100 and a cat costs $25 for non-Minneapolis residents.

Schendel said he hopes both Minneapolis and non-Minneapolis residents make use of the MACC’s affordable adoptions.

“I’m really hoping that the public shows up not just these next two days, but always, right?” Schendel said. “These animals are ready for their new forever home.”

Weissenborn said the grants and Clear the Shelter events are excellent ways to temporarily relieve the at-capacity pressure on shelters, however, a long-term solution for animal welfare means addressing broader social issues.

“Our next big step for animal welfare, in general, is just having those bigger conversations of housing insecurities and keeping people and pets together and what we can do to better assist our community,” Weissenborn said. “We need to start looking outside of the shelter for ways to help these animals.”