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Greater Birmingham Humane Society reaches capacity, waives adoption fees

Greater Birmingham Humane Society reaches capacity, waives adoption fees

Yahoo07-06-2025

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — The Greater Birmingham Humane Society shelter is at capacity, and they need your help to save the lives of dogs and cats.
'Definitely if they've been thinking about adopting a pet, this is the time to adopt. If they're at all interested in fostering a pet, this is absolutely the time to foster,' said Ivana Sullivan, the Chief Program Officer for the Greater Birmingham Humane Society.
On Friday and Saturday, GBHS is waiving adoption fees at all their locations in hopes of finding homes for the dozens of animals they are sheltering. The only fee that will need to be paid is the $10 micro chip fee. This week the CEO of the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, Allison Black Cornelius took to Facebook with an urgent plea:
'We are in a crisis here at GBHS, a major crisis, we're full, we're beyond full, and animals like Rex need a home,' she explained.
Birmingham Botanical Gardens hosting 2025 Fern Expo
To listen to her entire statement, click here. Ivana Sullivan, the Chief Program Officer, talked about what led to this situation:
'We've got lots of folks trying to surrender their pets, we've got lots and lots of strays in Jefferson County that are coming into the shelter for their stray holds and so we just only have so many kennels.'
In her Facebook post, Cornelius mentioned that they have not had to euthanize for space in a long time, but they're having to do so now.
'It's very devastating,' Sullivan remarked when asked about this 'because you get to a point where there's just no where to put these animals.'
The state of Alabama does not require pets be spayed or neutered. Sullivan said that needs to change:
'There definitely needs to be some sort of mandatory solution to this so this can stop, animals in the shelter is just not the solution, we've got to do better.'
GBHS is also in need of folks to foster pets and food for dogs and cats, including wet cat food for kittens. For more information, click here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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