Last week, the city’s animal shelter reached a bursting point. Indianapolis Animal Care Services posted a callout on Facebook, asking for people to come in and adopt dogs and cats.

As of Dec. 6, the shelter had 227 dogs — and only 210 kennels. They had 86 cats in 91 kennels.

The community came through, and over 50 animals were adopted. But, IACS is still sitting at 105% of its capacity for dogs and 62% for cats.

If you want to help, you can meet adoptable dogs and cats at the “Home For the Holidays” adoption event from noon to 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20, at Indianapolis Animal Care Services, 2600 S. Harding St.

During the event, hosted in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society, all adoption fees are waived and anyone who takes home a new pet gets a free goodie bag.

The shelter will also promote its foster program. If you’re over 18 and interested in providing a temporary home for an animal, you can apply online.

Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Sign up for our free newsletters.

Mirror Indy reporter Sophie Young covers services and resources. Contact her at sophie.young@mirrorindy.org.

Close window

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.

Adopt an animal from the city’s shelter at a holiday event Dec. 20

by Sophie Young, Mirror Indy
December 10, 2025

<h1>Adopt an animal from the city’s shelter at a holiday event Dec. 20</h1> <p class="byline">by Sophie Young, Mirror Indy <br />December 10, 2025</p> <p>Last week, the city’s animal shelter reached a bursting point. Indianapolis Animal Care Services posted a callout on Facebook, asking for people to come in and adopt dogs and cats.</p> <p>As of Dec. 6, the shelter had 227 dogs — and only 210 kennels. They had 86 cats in 91 kennels.</p> <p>The community came through, and over 50 animals were adopted. But, IACS is still sitting at 105% of its capacity for dogs and 62% for cats.</p> <p>If you want to help, you can meet adoptable dogs and cats at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/share/1BWSNAqovu/">“Home For the Holidays” adoption event</a> from noon to 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20, at Indianapolis Animal Care Services, 2600 S. Harding St.</p> <p>During the event, hosted in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society, all adoption fees are waived and anyone who takes home a new pet gets a free goodie bag.</p> <p>The shelter will also promote its foster program. If you’re over 18 and interested in providing a temporary home for an animal, you can <a href="https://www.indy.gov/activity/apply-to-foster-an-animal">apply online</a>.</p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://mirrorindy.org/adopt-dog-indianapolis-animal-care-services-holiday/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://mirrorindy.org&quot;&gt;Mirror Indy&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/mirrorindy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-Mirror-Indy-square-logo-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://mirrorindy.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=69224&amp;amp;ga4=G-X0R0QW371R&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://mirrorindy.org/adopt-dog-indianapolis-animal-care-services-holiday/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/mirrorindy.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Copy to Clipboard

1