Tulsa Animal Welfare Hopes To ‘Clear The Shelter’ This Weekend

Tulsa Animal Welfare euthanizes around 4,000 animals every year because of irresponsible pet owners and overcrowding.

But, TAW and the City are preparing for Clear the Shelter in hopes of sending the animals to a happy home.

Face after eager face peer out of the kennels at Tulsa Animal Welfare, ready to go home.

City council members Jeannie Cue and Jack Henderson took a tour of the shelter Friday to help promote the Clear the Shelter initiative going on Saturday.

And with the number of pets euthanized each year, it's an opportunity to save lives.

Jean Letcher with TAW said, "We don't want to be euthanizing for time and space; and during the summer months, that's where we are. When we get 77 in in a day, we don't have all the space to keep all of them."

City councilors say not only will adopting help but so will registering pets with the city so strays can be returned home without ever seeing the inside of a kennel.

"The more we can get people to participate in that program, and the city council to direct that money to Animal Welfare, the more we can save our pets," Cue said.

Typically at the Tulsa Animal Welfare, adoption fees for dogs are $75 and $25 for cats, but Saturday, all animals will be $10.

From bunnies to kittens, cats, dogs and puppies, the shelter has it all - but time and space are limited before some will have to be put down.

"We do it humanely, but we don't want to be doing it at all," Letcher said.

Animal Welfare does what they can to save as many animals as possible.

Letcher said, "We have rescue groups - local and national - that come in and pull from us, we transport to other communities."

But that doesn't save them all.

Animal Welfare will be open Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. for the event.