CLEVELAND — Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in a previous story on Aug. 20, 2022.
Nearly 3,000 shelter and rescue animals were adopted throughout Northeast Ohio in the 2022 Clear The Shelters campaign, which ran for the entire month of August.
The total, which 3News confirmed Friday morning, shows 2,933 animals found their forever homes with the help of 22 different rescues and shelters throughout the region.
That total is approximately 400 more than the 2021 Clear The Shelters campaign.
Nationally, in 2022, there was a record breaking 161,715 pets adopted, which brings the total since 2015 to 860,763.
“Clear The Shelters is a community-driven effort that counts on the support of so many, including our employees, shelter partners, our affiliate stations and our national sponsors and thanks to them the campaign has become an important event,” said Valari Staab, Chairman of NBCUniversal Local.
This annual pet adoption campaign is spearheaded by NBCUniversal in partnership with local NBC affiliates – like WKYC – and Telemundo stations across the United States and Puerto Rico.
“The Shelters campaign was inspired by a 2014 North Texas pet adoption event hosted by NBC 5 / KXAS and Telemundo 39 / KXTX and dozens of area shelters that resulted in the most adopted pets in one day for North Texas,” according to NBCUniversal.
MORE PETS:
Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in an unrelated story on Aug. 31, 2022.