Broward County Animal Care features playful shelter dog April for adoption

April, a 2- to 3-year-old stray at Broward County Animal Care, has spent months waiting in Fort Lauderdale while staff try to match her with a permanent home. Shelter workers describe her as affectionate, energetic and playful, especially once she leaves the kennel and can show the social side that is harder to see inside the shelter.

That contrast is central to April’s adoption appeal. Outside her enclosure, she loves swimming, playing with other dogs and meeting new people, traits that point to a dog who would do best in an active home with room for exercise, regular attention and an adopter who can look past kennel stress. Inside the shelter, April can become stressed, a problem many long-stay dogs face when they spend weeks or months in crowded, noisy environments that do not reflect how they behave in a home.

Broward County Animal Care has made April part of a broader push to move animals into permanent homes. The county’s open-admission shelter takes in more than 8,500 lost, stray or surrendered dogs and cats each year, and it said adoption fees were waived while pet registration fees still apply. Pets adopted through the agency receive vaccinations and microchips, part of the county’s effort to send them out healthier and easier to identify if they get lost again.

As of May 30, Broward County Animal Care was operating under an emergency response campaign called Code Home because it had more dogs than available kennels. Animal Care Director Doug Brightwell said the shelter remained beyond dog kennel capacity and urged residents to adopt, foster and help reunite lost pets with their owners. The county’s shelter is at 2400 SW 42nd Street in Fort Lauderdale, near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and it also runs lost-and-found services and rescue partnership programs.

April’s story sits inside a larger county system that also carries public health responsibilities. Broward County requires rabies vaccination for dogs, cats and ferrets, and dogs and cats must wear a Broward County Pet Rabies Registration Tag. Revenue from those tags helps fund animal care, medical treatment and sterilization programs.

The county’s adoption push has continued through the spring and summer, including an Empty the Shelters campaign marked May 4 for National Pet Month and a Petco Love Florida MEGA Adoption Event listed for June 10. For April, those efforts all point to the same goal: getting a young, social dog out of a kennel and into a home where her energy can become a strength instead of a barrier.