Marquardt, who knew he wanted a dog as soon as he moved into a pet-friendly apartment, said visiting the shelter helped show his support for the Humane Society and their mission — and also to show off his four-legged friend.
“My roommate is a preveterinary major and she volunteered here,” Marquardt said. “We’d been looking into getting a dog when we moved into a new apartment ... so as soon as we got a new place that allowed dogs we started shopping around. We knew we were going to adopt just because it helps the dogs and it’s a good cause.”
Marquardt, along with numerous other participants, attended Capital Area Humane Society’s third Annual Woofstock Adopt-a-Thon on Saturday, which gave alumni animals a chance to visit the shelter and gave shelter residents a chance at finding a home.
Marquardt said it’s important to to come back for the alumni walk because, “All these people who showed up here found loving pets from this place. Iit’s pretty cool to see.”
The Capital Area Humane Society has celebrated 1,420 adoptions so far this year.
Capital Area Humane Society president and CEO Julia Palmer-Willson said the purpose of Woofstock is to promote adoption so that people will come to the shelter and consider adopting an animal.
“Every year it’s a lot of work; we do adoptions on a daily basis, but this is a large-scale adoption event, so certainly a lot more planning goes into an event like this,” Palmer-Willson said.
Palmer-Willson added that out out of approximately 200 animals, st the shelter, 100 were available for adoption Saturday.
In addition to the Adopt-a-Thon, Woofstock hosted an alumni walk for pet owners who have previously adopted dogs. The pet owners brought their dogs back to the shelter and went for a one-mile walk around the Capital Area Humane Society property.
“We really like to celebrate our alumni, or the folks who adopted from us, and we like to see those animals come back to the shelter. So each year we host an alumni walk,” Palmer said. “We encourage folks who adopted dogs specifically ... to come back, bring their animals, celebrate their adoption and it gives us the chance to see that they’re in a happy home.”
The Capital Area Humane Society raised funds for the shelter by hosting a bake sale at the event.
Capital Area Humane Society Director of Operations Holly Lawrence said the funds raised from the bake sale will go toward medical care for the animals, including vaccinations.
Lansing resident Pierre Brown said he found out about Woofstock on Facebook. He has two cats and thought about adopting another cat or a guinea pig.
Brown said he was compelled to choose adoption because shelter animals deserve a second chance..
At the end of the event 35 animals had been adopted.
