A.D.O.P.T. Pet Shelter in Naperville, which is now partnered with Will County Animal Protection Services, is trying to reduce the overflow of animals they now have by offering a 50% reduction for all dog adoption fees through Aug. 1.
Because Will County is struggling to humanely house their animals, A.D.O.P.T. agreed to take in nearly all of their stray animals as part of the new arrangement, according to Anna Payton, administrator for Will County Animal Protection Services. The county also is exploring the idea of expanding its facilities to humanely house animals, she said.
“There’s been just such a high increase unfortunately in animal intake for us, we really needed to kind of hit the pause button and figure out a solution that’s sustainable to be able to serve that many animals,” said Payton, noting that Will County’s facilities were not initially designed for housing animals.
Since the new arrangement started in the spring, the animal population at A.D.O.P.T. has nearly doubled, Chris Yelle, executive director of A.D.O.P.T. Pet Shelter, said. A.D.O.P.T. is temporarily halting their intake of owner surrenders as a result, she said.
“It can be stressful for the dogs here because every kennel is now full. So every space we have available to house animals is now filled with a dog, which is something that they’re not used to,” she said.
Without the discounted rate, normal adoption fees range from $525 for puppies four months old and younger to $350 for dogs that are between the ages of 1 and 6. Senior dogs cost $250. The fee includes vaccinations, spaying/neutering, microchips and a harness, the shelter’s website says.
Prior to the partnership, A.D.O.P.T. had about 25 to 30 dogs in its shelter at 420 Industrial Drive. Now, they’re housing about 50 to 60 dogs, most of which are larger in size, she said.
The number of cats at the Naperville shelter has also increased since the partnership, jumping from about 50 cats to close to 100, which includes both cats currently at their facility and litters of kittens in foster care.
Will County is not the only area experiencing a crisis with its animal and pet population. Many shelters have been reporting the same issues. In May, Chicago Animal Care and Control officials said they were seeing an influx of animal surrenders, averaging about 56 animals coming into the shelter per day.
“Intake is increasing across the board and placement for large dogs has been very difficult across the board,” Yelle said. “We’ve seen a lot of people surrendering animals for medical reasons or they just don’t have the time — and shelters across our community are just really full.”
In 2023, 6.5 million animals entered shelters across the nation, according to Shelter Animals Count’s national database. That number slightly decreased in 2024, with 5.8 million animals. Despite the drop, many say they are still at capacity and struggling to meet the needs of their communities.
“We have a lot of animals here that are looking for placement and we’re wanting to reach out to our community to let them know that we have a lot of really great animals right now,” Yelle said.
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The increase in animals at A.D.O.P.T. has put staff and volunteers under more stress, Shelter Operations Manager Aleksa Martinovich said.
“The more full we are, the more animals there are to care for and everyone’s working very hard to make sure that everyone is taken care of,” Martinovich said. “Every staff (member) and volunteer here, if they could, would probably take one of these animals home.”
Dogs currently available for adoption include everything from pitbulls and mixed breeds to huskies and even a Belgian Malinois.
“We primarily have large adult dogs,” Martinovich said, noting that large is considered anything over 50 pounds. “We also have one small senior dog, but we are really looking for people that can take on a large dog, or maybe people that don’t have any pets for some of our dogs that need to be the only pet in the home.”
The A.D.O.P.T. shelter is open for adoptions from noon to 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The shelter is also in need of people who can foster animals on a temporary basis, Yelle said.