New Program: “Doggie Daycation.” You May Be Allowed To Take A Dog For A Day…
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2026 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — Palm Beach County’s only open-admission animal shelter is out of room. The Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control shelter is 23 percent over capacity for dogs, with its cat population not far behind. The shelter at 7100 Belvedere Road in West Palm Beach is both the sole municipal shelter in the county and the only one that has to take in every pet that needs a place to go — strays, abandoned animals, and victims of abuse and neglect.
Officials fear that it’s about to get worse. Summer is when shelter populations balloon: people leave on vacation, fewer families are looking to add a pet, and adoption numbers drop while intakes don’t. Without help from the community, the math doesn’t work. Open kennels are what allow the shelter to keep doing its job for animals with no other place to call home.
Animal Care and Control is asking for three things: adopters, fosters, and rescue partners. Adoptable pets are listed at pbc.gov/snap with photos and notes from staff and volunteers, and adoption and foster applications live at pbc.gov/animal. If a particular pet catches your eye online, the shelter asks that you come to the Belvedere Road facility in person to meet them.
To showcase its dogs — and give them a break from kennel life — Animal Care and Control has launched a new “Doggie Daycation” program that lets approved members of the public sign out a shelter dog for a few hours of decompression time. Applicants must be 18 or older and provide an ID with a Palm Beach County address. The foster interest form is at https://survey.pbcgov.com/s3/Foster-Volunteer-Application, with a checkbox for Doggie Daycation participation. The shelter can be reached at 561-233-1200.
