Marcella Baietto

The Republic | azcentral.com

Maricopa County Animal Care and Control is seeking the public's help in finding homes for nearly 450 dogs because its shelters have reached capacity.

To help reach the goal, they are giving dogs away for free this weekend.

Agency spokesman Jose Santiago said in a Facebook video posted Thursday that 300 dogs from the county's West Valley shelter and 150 dogs from the East Valley shelter are in need of homes.

The video showed the West Valley Animal Care Center and its nine buildings of kennels at capacity. Every kennel had at least one dog in it; some were doubled up.

"In some cases, we are doubling, we're tripling and we're even quadrupling our kennels," Santiago said in the video posted on the agency's Facebook page.

The shelter currently is running a Halloween promotion that grants free adoptions for anyone in a Halloween costume. However, the shelter decided to let anyone come in to adopt a dog for free, costume or not, until it can find homes for enough dogs. The policy started Thursday and will go indefinitely, Santiago told The Arizona Republic.

Dogs that cannot be adopted or claimed by an owner from one of the two facilities within a set period are euthanized by the county.

"We can't do this," said Santiago in the video."We cannot keep doing this to our animals and to our workers."

A city of Maricopa resident Amy Cain Clark said she became interested in adopting a medium or larger dog once she saw the Facebook video.

She hopes the fact the adoption fee will be waived will attract more people to adopt.

According to the county website, the adoption fees vary, but can be as high as $150. Puppies and younger dogs generally cost more.

An animal must be spayed or neutered before it can be adopted, which can add to the cost, but the county will take care of that, as well as all needed vaccines before sending the dog home with its new owner.

"It is helpful knowing that there's not that extra cost," Clark said.

Clark and her husband are planning to visit the west Phoenix location on Saturday to see if any dogs would be a good fit for them.

For those interested in adoptions, call 602-506-7387 or visit the website at pets.maricopa.gov.

The West Valley Animal Care Center is located at 2500 S. 27th Ave., Phoenix, near 27th Avenue and Durango Street.

The East Valley Care Center is located at 2630 W. Rio Salado Parkway, Mesa, just east of Loop 101.

Hours at both locations are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.