When you adopt a pet, you save lives and get a best friend who loves you unconditionally. That alone is enough of a reward, but New York is looking to encourage more people to adopt by offering a tax credit.

Over 6 million dogs and cats are in shelters around the U.S. waiting for forever homes. Every year, roughly 1.5 million shelter pets are euthanized. While shelters are doing their best to encourage people to adopt not shop, they are overcrowded and in desperate need of adopters.

New York State is considering a tax credit for people that adopt pets. The proposed amendment to the tax law would give New Yorkers a $125 tax credit for adopting a dog or cat. The credit would only apply to domestic animals and those adopted from a shelter.

In order to receive the credit, tax payers will need to provide an adoption certificate from a shelter. The purpose of the credit is to cover the adoption fee and encourage people to adopt not shop. The tax credit would apply for each dog or cat adopted in a calendar year starting on or after January, 1, 2021.

The ASPCA Onyx and Breezy Shefts Adoption Center, located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, experimented with a fee-waived program for cats over the age of three and were happily surprised by the results. ASPCA Senior Vice President Gail Buchwald found out through research and their own “Free Over Three” program that adoption fees are not ‘necessary to secure quality homes.’

“The number of visitors to the Adoption Center increased dramatically, as did adoptions of all animals. Follow-up calls to fee-waived adopters showed no difference in the way those cats were being treated as compared to those adopted with a fee. The promotion proved to be so successful that cats over the age of three are now always free at the Adoption Center,” reported ASPCA.

Hopefully, this bill will pass and then other states will follow suit. Meanwhile, encourage everyone you know to visit their local shelter to adopt.