DAPHNE, Ala. — If you’d like to save an animal and make a friend by adopting a dog or cat, you might visit the “Working Together, Saving Lives” adoption event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug 23 at the Daphne Animal Shelter.

Free children’s fingerprint identification, music, “Fireman Tom” Bertagnolli and the firetruck, Sno Cones, $10 micro-chipping — a device  placed under an animals’ skin helps to identify the owner, if the pet is lost — and spaying and neutering information will be part of the festivities.

Animal adoptions will cost $50 per cat, $75 per dog, according to Rhonda Jones, Daphne Animal Shelter animal control officer.

More than 50 dogs and cats from the Daphne Animal Shelter, The Haven in Fairhope, Fairhope Animal Shelter, Baldwin County Animal Shelter and Bay Minette Animal Shelter will await adoption next Saturday.

“Working together with our friends at the animal control shelters is the only way we can realistically solve the pet overpopulation problem and help stop abuse and neglect towards these special animals,” said Mike Graham, The Haven’s executive director.

From small- to large-breed dogs and short- to long-haired cats, there’ll be a variety of would-be pets ready for a home, he said.

The collaboration, sponsored by Maddie’s Fund — a pet rescue foundation — is held because numbers of unwanted animals continue to rise, he said.

“For animal control shelters located in certain jurisdictions in Baldwin  County, they will see higher intakes for pit bull terrier mixes and also black labs,” he said.  “This has much to do about our pop-culture and lack of education.”

He’s talking about the misconceptions the public tends to associate with bull dogs and larger breeds — the perceived connection to violence, or the tendency to snap and bite.

“And of course all shelters across the country experience the puppy and kitten seasons,” he said. “Again the reason is due to lack of spaying and neutering pets and (lack of) ensuring all pets being adopted from our shelters and rescue groups are altered before being released to the new owner.”

In 1997 roughly 64 percent  of animals that entered shelters were euthanized —that’s about 2.7 million animals in 1,000 known shelters in the U.S., according to American Humane Association’s Web site at americanhumane.org.

About 56 percent of dogs and 71 percent of cats that enter animal shelters are euthanized; more cats are euthanized than dogs since they are more likely to enter a shelter without owner identification, according to the site.

Daphne’s shelter takes in five to 10 animals per day, Jones said; it received 55 last month — and that was far below average.

“There’s so many strays and there’s not enough homes,” she said. “(Shelter animals) know that you’ve rescued them; I don’t know how.”

 Kathy Eddy, executive director of Baldwin Animal Rescue Center, said she hopes the collaborative event will bring people out.

“Anytime you have  a large number of animals for the public to view, it increases the chances (of adoption),” she said. “It may seem overwhelming but everyone who takes in one, that’s one that is saved.”

Graham agreed.

“Pet overpopulation is a problem that each of us can do something about,” he said.