A new initiative entitled “Happy Hour” allows volunteers to take dogs out of the shelter for the day, walk them and play with them, and return the animal by the end of the day.
“Our Happy Hour program was designed to get the animals out of the shelter to get exercise and also to market the animal while it’s out to increase adoption potential,” said Jennifer Earp, director of the Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter. “People get a chance to see how the animals behave outside of a shelter environment, which increases their adoptability.”
Earp, who’s been at the shelter for 16 years, said Happy Hour allows potential owners to see how the future pet may interact at home or around other animals. In addition, the new program caters to volunteers who just want to have an animal for the day.
“The flow of people to the shelter has increased since we started this program,” Earp said. “If a person is at the shelter and can’t decide if they want to adopt a particular animal, we will suggest Happy Hour as a way for that adopter to interact with the pet at his or her home.”
Introduced in early September, Happy Hour has seen increasing participation.
“We probably get about 15 to 20 people per day coming in to participate,” Earp said. “Some of these people come in groups and may only take one dog. We have had several adopted due to the new program. Our adoptions for the month of October totaled 111. Our average for past years for the month of October were around 60 to 70.”
One student who participated in Happy Hour earlier this year was Abbey Greenwalt, a junior majoring in exercise and sports science.
“I decided to partake in the Happy Hour program at the Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter because I love dogs and missed my lab back at home,” Greenwalt said. “Also to know that I am doing a good thing by taking these dogs on walks, getting them out of the shelter, and to be able to give them the love and affection they may not receive all the time being at the shelter.”
Greenwalt said she thinks programs such as Happy Hour are essential for the animals.
“I think programs like Happy Hour are important because they give students the chance to play with dogs from the shelter, and getting the chance to have a trial run with a dog to see if there is a connection before adoption is important,” she said.
Other students said they think Happy Hour can be beneficial not only to the dogs, but to the volunteer as well.
“Having a program where I can go and adopt a dog for the day is great because it helps the dog and it helps me. I miss my dog back home, and this allows me to hang out with the animal while he or she can get out and walk at the same time,” said Cameron Saben, a freshman majoring in engineering.
Earp stressed that dogs are safe and go through extensive tests prior to adoption.
“Every animal is vaccinated, dewormed and has flea and tick prevention,” she said. “Before adoption, they get tested for heartworms and microchipped.”
“We hope for Happy Hour to grow so we will adopt more animals out,” Earp said. “The more people that get involved, the more animals will get adopted.”
