Do you have a passion for compassion?

If so, this might be your weekend, as Suffolk Animal Care has joined 11 other animal shelters across Virginia to promote a special adoption event around this theme. Using the hashtag #Passion4Compassion, each participating shelter will use social media throughout the weekend to feature staff and volunteers as well as animals available for adoption.

This is a busy time of year for animal shelters, and the folks in Suffolk hope to take advantage of the natural increase in interest to find new homes for the stray and abandoned animals in their care.

“We have so many wonderful loving animals waiting for that chance of a new home,” Laurie Brittle, Suffolk Animal Shelter manager, said in a press release announcing the event. “If you are thinking of adding a new member to your family, please consider a shelter pet.”

What’s the big deal about adopting?

According to the Humane Society of the United States, between six and eight million pets end up in animal shelters each year, and only half of them wind up being adopted. Life is short and sad for the others. So adopting a pet literally saves a life.

Many folks are surprised to learn how healthy shelter pets are. Many of the pets in shelters are there because they’ve been given up by owners who no longer can take care of them because of changes in living situations, so most are already family friendly when they’re adopted. Furthermore, animals adopted from the Suffolk shelter are current on vaccinations and have been spayed or neutered.

That means you’ll almost always find that adopted animals are cheaper than their counterparts from pet stores or even those passed along for free in classified ads. And even if you’re looking for a purebred dog or cat, it’s often not necessary to commit to the expense of a pet store, since as many as 25 percent of shelter animals are purebred.

Another benefit of getting a purebred shelter pet is that you’re not supporting puppy mills, the factory-style breeding facilities that have become infamous for their poor treatment of animals and for the behavioral and health problems of the pets that come from them.

Finally and perhaps most obviously, adopting an animal from an animal shelter gives the adoptive family a sense of goodwill and benevolence that cannot be matched by the simple act of buying a dog or cat from a breeder. The love from the animal might be similar, but the owner’s love is enhanced by the knowledge of the animal’s likely fate if it had not been adopted.

For more information about adopting an animal from Suffolk Animal Care, call 514-7855 or visit www.suffolkva.us/anml_ctrl/adoption. The city’s animal shelter is located at 124 Forest Glen Drive and is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.