Community

Long Island shelters come together for adoption event

Polish Hall Pet Event
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | Several shelters joined forces to get dogs and cats adopted at Polish Hall in Riverhead on Saturday.

Hopeful pet-owners-to-be flocked to Polish Hall in Riverhead this past Saturday, with about a dozen arriving an hour before the big Pet Adoption Expo event was about to open its doors.

(They were told to come back at 10:30 a.m.)

The second such event held in as-many years was organized by Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons with participating shelters from Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter, Kent Animal Shelter, RSVP and North Fork Animal Welfare League.

About 75 animals available were up for adoption and all were spayed or neutered, vaccinated to their age limit and checked by a veterinarian.

Two hours into the event, seven dogs and one cat were adopted.

The policies for adopting varied from shelter to shelter: some required lengthy paperwork and phone calls and were told they had to wait a couple of days and go back to the shelter to get the pets, others did the background checks at the adoption site and could take the pets home that day.

Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons’ director of marketing and communications, Jamie Berger, said that she is hoping the adoption expo will be an annual Riverhead event.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring shelters together to meet with would-be pet owners to adopt instead of buying a pet,” she said.

“That’s the goal for us.”

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