AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Animal Center is getting ready for the annual Clear the Shelters event, and a special guest stopped by KXAN’s studio to tell us all about it.
Mary Brown, a volunteer coordinator with Austin Animal Center, brought six-month-old Mantis to visit with KXAN’s Avery Travis and Will DuPree and share more about this weekend’s event.
Mantis is one of dozens of dogs hoping to find a home through Clear the Shelters. Brown said the center aims to help 50 medium to large dogs find their forever families this weekend.
“We’re really struggling with kennel space for our medium to large dogs,” she said. “They just stay at the shelter longer than a lot of our other pets do.”
Clear The Shelters is a nationwide campaign sponsored by NBCUniversal Local, aimed at encouraging people to adopt pets from their local shelters. The campaign helps place more than 100,000 animals each year, helping local shelters and rescues mitigate overcrowding.
Brown said the “financial burden” of owning a pet often contributes to overcrowding at shelters like Austin Animal Center.
“It can be really expensive to live in a rental that you might have pet deposits, pet fees, those types of things, and vet care is just a lot more expensive,” she said. “So we understand a lot of adopters just don’t have the capacity, especially for medium to large dogs.”
Overcrowding is not a new issue for Austin Animal Center. Earlier this year, the head of the center retired after he was criticized for issues at the shelter, including overcrowding.
Austin City Council has taken steps to address the center’s overcrowding struggles, voting to implement a plan to identify facility upgrades and improve programming to increase animal placements.
If Austin residents want to help — but aren’t ready to adopt a new pet — Brown highlighted volunteer and fostering opportunities that help the center’s day-to-day operations.
“Think of sweet Mantis at the shelter,” she said. “You might not be able to adopt him, but if you came in and walked him every single day and helped him learn some tricks as a volunteer, that’s going to get him ready for his forever home.”
If you are interested in learning more about Clear The Shelters 2025 and seeing more dogs like Mantis, visit cleartheshelters.com.