We hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday season, but we have to offer special congratulations to the San Francisco SPCA. This year, the SFSPCA set a new record with its Holiday Windows program, which rehomed 342 dogs and cats and raised almost $80,000 for the organization. To put that in perspective, last year, 287 animals were adopted through Holiday Windows. Happy holidays, indeed!
From Nov. 16 to Jan. 5, Holiday Windows operated a temporary adoption center on the first floor of Macy’s department store in Union Square, allowing people to get information and meet adoptable animals while they did their Christmas shopping. Live feeds of the animals in their temporary homes at Macy’s were also set up for people who were doing their holiday browsing from the comfort of home.
Of course, we’ve ranted and railed about the evils of picking up a pet from the local pet store as a Christmas present, but the Holiday Windows program is different. It’s part of the SFSPCA’s larger program to encourage good adoption practices and eliminate animal abandonment called Vision 2020.
Unlike the pups or kittens that you would get out of a typical pet store, the SFSPCA’s animals come with a lot of additional features. Every one of the animals that found his or her forever home via the Holiday Windows program had been screened for medical conditions, vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and given a microchip. Having all those things done is a huge step toward responsible pet ownership. Just making sure that all new dog owners had gotten their pets chipped would keep a lot of pups from languishing in a shelter someplace, waiting to find a new home after they’ve become separated from their families.
We have to congratulate the SFSPCA on breaking it own record, and we wish good luck to all the animals who found new homes. That’s a holiday that even the grinchiest among us can get behind.
Via San Francisco Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
For more on the Holiday Windows Program, check out the Catster staff’s visit from last year.
