Clear The Shelters is a campaign supported by NBC to help get animals without families that are living in shelters forever homes. Starting on August first, the adoption initiative began and ran through the month of August until the 31st.
According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in 2025, 5.8 million cats and dogs were brought to animal shelters across the United States, and 576,000 of them were euthanized. Junior Madeline Thorne stated in an interview, “I had no idea so many shelter animals were being euthanized each year. I think it this campaign is a great way to bring attention to the need for adopting these animals. There are so many animals waiting for a permanent home and its great that it can be done through our local shelters.”
The idea started back in 2014, NBC 5 and Telemundo 39 from the North Texas area partnered up to organize a pet-adoption event which included pets from various shelters around the area. They were so successful in getting pets to be adopted that it became an inspiration for what we now call the Clear the Shelters campaign.
The following year, NBCUniversal Local initiated the campaign on a national scale with the mission of getting as many pets adopted as possible. As of the end of this year’s campaign, 1,450,745 pets have been adopted since the original adoption campaign in 2015. For just the 2026 campaign, 101111 pets have been adopted from the shelters. Though cats and dogs make up most of the adoption numbers, the campaign is not restricted to just these pets. The campaign includes all pets of various breeds, sizes, and characteristics. There is even a pig that has been adopted after wandering the streets of Delaware. Junior and president of the Animal Advocates Club at Hingham High School, Parker Whitehouse mentioned, “Animal Advocates has volunteered at shelters many times, and it is so hard to see all the dogs and cats without homes. It is great to hear that through the Clear the Shelters campaign, pets are being adopted and millions of dollars are being raised!”
Many different stores and businesses support the cause by promoting the campaign, such as The Black Dog, and many Puppy Yoga studios in Boston. The Black Dog has merchandise which features artwork from the Clear the Shelters campaign and 100% of their profits from those articles of clothing will go into a donation to the campaign.
If you would still like to support the campaign, the donation portion of the campaign is open until September 15. Although there is no set amount of money raised yet for this year, last year $628,000 were raised and the campaign’s cumulative total has raised more than $5.6 million dollars since 2015. You just have to go to the Clear the Shelters website and click the donation link to help give a pet a better life.
