CAÑON CITY, Colo. — The Humane Society of Fremont County is over capacity which caused them to fill spare rooms with animal kennels.

Usually summer is their busiest time, so when they are at capacity they discount their adoption rate.

The no-kill shelter likes to stay at 75 percent so they can always take in animals in case of an emergency.

Because they are currently overpopulated with animals, they are charging $10 for cats and $20 for dogs. That includes spaying and neutering the animals.

“My kennel manager came to and said ‘we’re full.’ I said ‘how full,’ she said ‘we don’t have another open kennel in the place,'” said Doug Rae, Executive Director of the Humane Society of Fremont County.

They are an open admission and no-kill shelter and won’t turn away any animals.

“We have a 99.5 percent save rate, the only way we are able to do that is by doing specials like we are doing right now, we are creating space,” said Rae. “The other option would be to euthanize animals for space and that’s something that I haven’t done the entire three years I’ve been here.”

Cañon City resident Mary Paolino and her friends were looking to adopt animals.

“They have feelings and they know, they may not be able to talk but animals are smart and they are good friends, and we need to take care of our animals,” said Paolino. “They have feelings and they know, they may not be able to talk but animals are smart and they are good friends, and we need to take care of our animals.”

After just starting the special Monday afternoon, the shelter says they have a really good response.

At the end of the day Tuesday, Rae said 11 dogs and 8 cats have found forever homes just this week.

Rae said many of the dogs at the shelter are “pit bull” type dogs and although these types of dogs get a bad rap, every animal deserves a forever home.

“The vast majority of the pit bulls we get in here are sweet, sweet, sweet, lovable dogs if we get the dogs that are just acting very crazy very aggressive, and what not that’s typically because the human has allowed that to happen,” said Rae.

The shelter does have a thorough process to be able to adopt a dog. They ask questions about the current pets you have at home to make sure the dog is sent to a home that is good for them.

Usually the application is two to three pages long.>> Learn more about the adoption process here.

If you can’t help by adopting a pet, they always take donations.

The shelter gets less than 20 percent of its $500,000 budget subsidized from its surrounding cities and towns.