Fifty animals adopted in one day.

That’s a tremendous accomplishment, one in which Sampson County Animal Shelter staff, Animal Control, county government officials and this general public should take immense pride. They should also use it as a launching pad for a renewed effort toward saving more animals that come through the county’s animal shelter on a daily basis.

The shelter has made massive strides in terms of all the “P’s” — paperwork, policies, practices and protocols — since early 2018 and Saturday’s “Clear the Shelter” event was one that we hope will prove to be a watershed moment in the shelter’s turnaround, a transformation that has already seen it come a long way.

Because, really, it is just one “P” that ultimately gets, and keeps, the public’s attention — pets.

Many in the general public see the primary role of an animal shelter as being a facilitator for the adoption of animals by publicizing those potential pets. With Saturday’s participation in a nationwide pet adoption drive, the shelter set a new standard for itself — it raised the bar on that expectation — and we hope the staff and others see it that same way.

It was a first for Sampson’s facility, as the local shelter adopted out spayed, neutered and fully-vaccinated animals for free on a first-come, first-served basis to those meeting adoption requirements, including having a photo ID and being at least 18 years old. Those who sought to adopt were also vetted by Animal Control so dogs and cats didn’t make it into the wrong hands.

Shelter staff and volunteers were on hand to welcome and talk to visitors, who toured the facility and walked freely through the dog and cat enclosure areas under the supervision of those there to help the process go safely and smoothly.

The event served not only to literally open the doors to the shelter, but to figuratively let the public in. The shelter has long been criticized for doing the complete opposite, but that simply wasn’t the case Saturday.

Shelter director Anna Ellis spearheaded a sizable good-faith effort in organizing an event, with the support of her staff and the backing of the Sampson Board of Commissioners, Dr. Bill and Trish Oglesby and others, that saw 50 animals — 35 dogs and 15 cats — adopted.

We don’t want to see that momentum lost.

In this space just last week, we lauded the progress the shelter had made, while urging them to continue moving on a positive path, with the understanding that the adoptions of animals needed to far outpace the number of those being put to sleep, not the other way around.

We want to echo, underline and emphasize that point.

The euthanization rate at the Sampson shelter still hovers around 50 percent. That has to dip, and the public can help. Continue that transparency. Sure, the animals won’t be free most of the time as they were this past weekend, but that doesn’t mean they are in any less need of a home, or make them any less lovable and desperate to find one.

The public can help, and it wants to. We urge Ellis and others to do what they can to continue to let the public in, so those tough euthanasia decisions that Ellis has talked about simply don’t have to be made with as high a frequency.

On Monday, just two days after the Sampson Animal Shelter’s adoptable population dropped by an unprecedented 90 percent, the shelter received another horde of dogs. Ellis said those animals would be posted on Facebook and hopefully be moved out of the shelter quickly.

The public is still watching, and we are still engaged.

Ellis wants “Clear the Shelter” to become an annual event, and smaller-scale public adoption outreach to be commonplace, including potentially extending the shelter’s adoption hours to Saturdays once a month. All of that sounds great, and we look forward to it happening.

Whatever is done, though, don’t lose the steam — or goodwill — that was gained this past weekend. Keep moving forward, with clearing the shelter, finding forever homes for dogs and cats, serving as the everyday mission.