Animal Humane New Mexico hosts first DogiCon adoption event in Albuquerque

DogiCon turned Animal Humane New Mexico’s main campus into a dog-themed festival, and some attendees left with new pets. The free June 7 event in Albuquerque drew 15 local vendors, food trucks, a Mario Kart tournament and a doggie cosplay costume contest, giving the shelter a crowd-pulling setting built around adoption rather than a standard open house.

That matters in Bernalillo County, where shelters are still trying to match homeless animals with permanent homes while reaching people who might not make a special trip to a kennel. Animal Humane New Mexico says it serves more than 10,000 homeless and at-risk dogs and cats each year, and it has re-homed 100% of healthy pets in its care since 2010. A festival-style event like DogiCon broadens the audience by bringing in families, gamers, pet owners and people browsing local vendors, all in one place.

The organization’s adoption rules help explain why the format can work. Adoptions are first-come, first-served, phone holds are not accepted, and the process takes at least 30 minutes. Animal Humane also says its adoptions follow the City of Albuquerque’s HEART Ordinance and Qualified Adopter Policy, which means the crowd at DogiCon was not just there to browse. It was there to move through a real adoption process on site.

Animal Humane New Mexico, founded in 1965, has operated from its Virginia Street campus for six decades. The group says it hosts dozens of events each year, including Doggie Dash & Dawdle, which it calls Albuquerque’s must-attend pet event and says has run for 43 years. DogiCon fits that broader strategy: use public events to bring more people to the campus, make the shelter feel accessible, and give animals more chances to be seen.

For a city where pet homelessness remains part of the public health and social safety net, the event offered a glimpse of how rescue work is changing. The mix of vendors, games and costume contests may have looked like entertainment, but it also created the kind of low-pressure setting that can turn curiosity into adoption.