Local dog rescue may get kennel availability at Oviedo Mall

A local dog rescue nonprofit may be on its way to having the ability to house its adoptable dogs at the Oviedo Mall overnight following the August 3 Oviedo City Council meeting.

Save A Life Pet Rescue, Inc., a local 501(c)(3) organization that has been in operation since 2006, is asking the city to amend its zoning map to allow for overnight housing of its animals at the mall, where it currently operates its adoption events Fridays and Saturdays. 

Kennel usage is currently prohibited within shopping centers, and would need to be added as a permissible use for the mall shopping area. Save A Life has been operating its events in the mall for almost a year. Prior to the mall location, they operated outside of the PetSmart on Vidina Place in Oviedo.

“We need this overnight stay provision at the Oviedo Mall,” Save A Life president Tamara Marshall said at the meeting. “The case would be to help reduce stress — we want to reduce stress on the particular pets. They’re being transported to the suite [on the] day of adoptions; it’s a very active couple hours. Most of them get adopted, thankfully, which is great, [but] we would like the opportunity to let those individuals stay overnight — specifically Friday to Saturday, for example, the way we’re structured currently — so that they can just rest and not have to get shuffled around again.”

Currently, Save A Life relies on foster homes for its pets when they are not having events. Marshall said they could have as few as one or two, or upwards of  10 dogs in the kennel on any given event night, depending on how many are adopted.

Save A Life takes in dogs from high-kill shelters across the Southeast US — primarily Northern Florida, Georgia and Alabama — and provides medical care and the transportation of the animals to Oviedo before putting them up for adoption.

“They’re really coming from really sad situations,” Marshall said.

Following Oviedo’s Local Planning Agency July 7 meeting (LINK) that discussed the amendment, a number of concerns were raised, which led to its current language, which includes limiting the number of kennels permitted in the shopping center to one. The organization addressed the LPA’s concerns with details in a presentation that was shared with the Council.

Save A Life Pet Rescue addressed kennel concerns from Oviedo’s LPA

Oviedo City Council unanimously approved to move the amendment to a public hearing at its Aug. 17 meeting.