San Antonio will host the Dogtober Pet Adoption Festival on Oct. 25 and 26 at 4710 State Highway 151, city officials announced. The two-day event, organized by the City of San Antonio and partners, is being promoted as a fall festival centered on pet adoptions and community activities, with organizers saying hundreds of dogs and cats will be on site for families and individuals to meet and potentially adopt.

The festival is scheduled to run across both days at the Highway 151 location and expanded sites such as the San Antonio Food Bank so prospective adopters can view a broad selection of animals. City promotional materials highlight that visitors will have the opportunity to meet pets in person and complete adoption arrangements on site. Among the animals featured in early publicity is Scrappy, described in event materials as one of the adoptable dogs who will be available during Dogtober.

Organizers emphasize that Dogtober is meant to be family friendly, pairing traditional festival elements such as live music and community programming with large-scale adoption efforts. The City lists two contacts associated with the event—Lisa Norwood and Alejandra Garcia—whose names appear in materials promoting the weekend as a coordinated, community-focused effort to place shelter animals in permanent homes.

The timing and format of Dogtober reflect a broader push by municipalities and animal-welfare groups to increase adoption visibility. Data from Best Friends Animal Society for the first nine months of 2024 show adoptions up 4% and shelter deaths down 3.4% compared with the same period in 2023, a trend advocates and officials say is linked in part to more frequent and larger public adoption events that facilitate lifesaving outcomes.

Local numbers underscore the stakes for San Antonio. The city’s Animal Care Services projects adoptions and rescues to increase by about 1,000 animals in fiscal year 2025 compared with 2024, even as overall intake is expected to rise by roughly 3,000 animals to about 33,000 total. That projection would result in a live release rate of about 83%, down from an on-track 85% in 2024, according to agency estimates cited in city planning documents. Organizers of events like Dogtober say large public adoption weekends are intended to help counter rising intake and keep more animals moving into homes.

To make the adoption process accessible, event organizers and city materials note that adoptions can be completed at the festival, allowing families to meet animals, confer with shelter staff or volunteers, and initiate placement paperwork without returning to a shelter facility. The two-day schedule is intended to accommodate a high volume of meet-and-greets and pairings between pets and prospective owners.

Organizers also suggest that prospective adopters consider household readiness before bringing a new pet home. Event guidance includes practical preparation steps—such as securing hazardous items like chemicals, plants and foods out of reach, using baby gates or crates for initial confinement, ensuring fences and windows are secure to prevent escapes, and gathering essential supplies like a bed, toys and treats—so that new placements settle in safely. Tips for Adopting Your New BFF include these preparation steps.

City officials and animal advocates framed Dogtober as one of several seasonal adoption initiatives that increase visibility for shelter pets while providing a celebratory, community-oriented setting for adoptions. Promotional materials repeatedly stress the aim of finding forever homes for animals brought to the event and present the weekend as both a service to residents and a tool to reduce shelter populations through higher adoption rates.

For those seeking more information, the festival notice lists the Highway 151 address and the event contacts, and encourages visitors to attend either or both days to meet the animals available for adoption.

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Original reporting: view the original article.