FAIRHOPE — Maddie’s Adoption Center in Loxley celebrated its first animal transfer Wednesday with the arrival of Cleo, a domestic shorthair dilute calico cat.

The Adoption Center, set to open Monday, April 9, will feature pets for adoption from the county and municipal animal control shelters in Baldwin County. Only animals in danger of being euthanized for space issues will be transferred into the center.

Cleo was abandoned at the Baldwin County Animal Control Center in Magnolia Springs on March 8 and has since been waiting for her second chance, a chance that does not come for every animal in our county.

“Our local shelters are in crisis,” said Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project Coordinator Casey Moore. “Last year, over 5,000 animals were euthanized in Baldwin County shelters, and 1,500 of those were healthy, adoptable pets. We simply didn’t have enough space to house them while we tried to find them homes.”

Moore said she hopes the Adoption Center will help ease the burden on our animal control shelters by providing another adoption outlet for homeless pets like Cleo.

“We definitely have a space issue,” said Charlotte Plumb, director of the Baldwin County Animal Control Center. “We get about 7,000 animals per year, and we have a very small number of kennels. There just isn’t enough room to hold the animals for very long.”

The Baldwin County shelter, along with Daphne, Bay Minette and Fairhope shelters and The Haven, are members of the Maddie’s coalition in Baldwin County. The coalition, led by the Baldwin Animal Rescue Center, has the goal of ending the euthanasia of shelter animals in the county by the year 2015.

“It’s important for people to remember that our animal control shelters are not the bad guys in this scenario,” Moore said. “The shelter staff work hard to find homes for the animals, but there are simply too many to care for with the resources available. This is a community problem, and it will take the entire community working together to solve it.”

Moore said increasing adoptions and promoting spaying and neutering are keys to success to end shelter euthanasia.

“One of the biggest challenges we face is competing with breeders and people who give kittens and puppies away for free because they have unwanted litters,” Moore said.

“We want people to understand that shelter pets are great animals, they are just down on their luck.”

Cleo, and many other great pets, will be available for adoption when Maddie’s Adoption Center opens. The center’s Grand Opening weekend will be April 13-15, and visitors will receive a free Maddie’s pet ID shrink tag.

For more information, please call (251) 964-8888.