(WENY) -- Across the Country, pet adoptions are down slightly year-to-year, putting a strain on shelters due to staffing issues and the quantity of animals looking for adoption. The BISSELL Pet Foundation is providing much needed help to New York State shelters through an intrastate transport program.

The Bissell Pet Foundation has worked with dozens of New York State shelters before, including several in our local area, to help boost adoption rates. Now, a new intrastate transport program is hoping to get more pets adopted whilst relieving shelters.

"Bissell Pet Foundation's transport platform is really a place for shelters and rescues to talk to each other. Hey, I've got this pet. Been here 100 days. Let's get this pet into another shelter that has space. Maybe they're going to see a dog that fits the needs of somebody. So if you are looking for a pet and you're looking at maybe a shelter out of your community, Obviously work to get to that shelter yourself to adopt because that spares the time and resources of a shelter working to transport pets in between," said Brittany Schlacter, The BISSELL Pet Foundation's Marketing and Public Relations Specialist.

Participating local shelters include the Chemung County Humane Society & S-P-C-A in Elmira, the S-P-C-A of Tompkins County in Ithaca, and the Humane Society of Yates County and Stray Haven Humane Society and S-P-C-A in Penn Yan.

The shelters participating in the program include:

- Animal Haven – New York, NY
- Animal Protective Foundation – Glenville, NY
- Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons – East Hampton, NY
- Broome County Humane Society – Binghamton, NY
- Chautauqua County Humane Society – Jamestown, NY
- Chemung County Humane Society & SPCA – Elmira, NY
- Friends Forever Animal Rescue - Pennellville, NY
- Happy Life Animal Rescue – Pawling, NY
- Humane Society of Yates County – Penn Yan, NY
- Lollypop Farm, Humane Society of Greater Rochester – Fairport, NY
- PawSafe Animal Rescue Inc – Stormville, NY
- Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation – West Holbrook, NY
- SPCA of Tompkins County – Ithaca, NY
- SPCA Serving Erie County – West Seneca, NY
- SPCA Westchester – Briarcliff Manor, NY
- Stray Haven Humane Society and SPCA – Penn Yan, NY
- Susquehanna SPCA – Cooperstown, NY
- Ten Lives Club – Blasdell, NY
- Wyoming County SPCA – Attica, NY

The program is hoping to give shelter pets a second chance through relocation to shelters that can increase adoption chances. Pets with stays in excess of 30 days are main targets of the program, which features 19 total participating shelters.

Long-stay pets are put on a list, the ones selected are relocated to another shelter in hopes of adoption.

"We are so grateful to our New York animal shelters and rescues. They are working so hard to get the pets and their care adopted. We've seen this for years now and they're really stepping with their peers in the community to raise awareness for these pets. So we're honored to partner with them and make this program possible," added Schlacter.