Albuquerque animals find forever homes during MVPets TAILgate event

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M – On Sunday, a pet adoption event used the Super Bowl as a gateway to save local four-legged lives.

“We’re doing the tailgate tour for PetSmart across the southwest U.S., we’re actually the last stop today,” said Dave Foxley, a PetSmart district manager. 

With a new partnership with the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, PetSmart traveled through different cities in the southwest with their MVPets TAILgate event.

Albuquerque is the last stop before they make it to the Super Bowl’s host city – Phoenix. These events bring local vendors, and the community together with different games, giveaways, and even little doggie goodie-bags.

But in Albuquerque, organizers wanted to make it a little different for the community.

“We thought we would marry our efforts here in Albuquerque with our stores, with our adoption partners,” said Foxley. 

Different dog shelters corralled throughout the store with puppies and dogs spread out to be adopted.

“We have a lot of our adoption partners here today, multiple adoption partners in this store, around this store saving lives,” Foxley said. 

Just about an hour into the event, little pups were finding homes.

“It’s super awesome what they’re doing, and I was just glad to find a good dog today,” said Marco Giordano, pet adopter. 

Shelters like Watermelon Ranch and the City of Albuquerque’s Animal Welfare Center were just some of the many shelters who came in to participate at this event.

While many had normal adoption fees, you could take dogs or cats home from one place without hurting your pockets.

“Currently all of our fees are waived, and the animals come spayed, neutered, microchipped, and fully vaccinated,” said Selia Velasquez, adoption center manager for the CABQ’s Animal Welfare Center. “Currently we just have a lot of animals in the shelter, we’re just doing our best to find homes, we’re so overpopulated.”

On the last stop before their Super Bowl destination, the TAILgate provided a good time for families and their dogs, and for some other pups to find forever homes.