Ninety animals were released from the Beaufort County animal shelter with a new lease on life. January was a banner month for pet adoptions, according to Joshua Jobe, shelter attendant.

“Usually we have between 20 to 50 adoptions — maybe 60 if we get lucky,” said Jobe. “It usually slows down in the winter, but last month was definitely different. It was definitely a good month for the animals.”

Jobe credits word of mouth and the Daily News’ “Pets of the Week” feature with the increase in adoptions.

“We see a lot of families; a lot of elderly couples (come) for the small dogs—it’s really been a variety,” Jobe said, adding that younger families tend to adopt young animals; older people, animals that have already been trained.

Jobe said that in January, though 90 animals left the Betsy Bailey Nelson Animal Control Facility, 173 animals were brought in (some of which are still there) and 54 were euthanized. Of those 90 animals, 82 were adopted — 47 cats, 35 dogs — and eight dogs were reclaimed by their owners. In December, there were 65 adoptions; in November, 37.

While the adoption rate was higher than normal, Jobe said their intake of animals was low; it’s spring and summer that are the shelter’s busiest season, when as many as three to four litters of cats come in per week.

To that end, shelter employees have started working with out of state animal rescue organizations like “Pilots and Paws,” based out of upstate New York. Jobe said that over the course of last summer, the shelter carried 43 crated puppies to the Greenville and Washington airports to meet volunteer pilots who had flown down to pick the animals up.

“Every time we got a litter in, they were happy to take them,” Jobe said. “They immediately found homes for them up there.”

Jobe said shelter staff is willing to do the extra work to find homes for animals.

“We’re working on spreading the word, to get the animals out of here so they don’t have to be euthanized,” he said.