More People Want Pets, But Why is America's Shelter Always Full?

The animal shelters in America have been experiencing surging adoptions, fosters, and plummeting pet populations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, animal shelter owners stated that shelters will never run out of animals in need.

Although a few shelters are empty, most of them across the country still have cats and dogs that are up for adoption but there might be a waiting list to get one. The good news is that Americans have stepped up by the tens of thousands to adopt and foster animals at their local shelters as social distancing and reduced staffing has closed facilities to the public thus sending adoption processes online.

Adoption and fostering campaign

One example is Dumb Friends League, a private animal shelter in Denver, Colorado, that put out a call for volunteers to foster the animals that they have. As soon as the announcement went online, more than 2,200 people signed up. Dumb Friends League is the largest shelter in the Rocky Mountain region, caring for 21,000 animals in 2019. Just this week, there were 1,115 dogs, cats, and other animals in its care and it changes hourly.

Shelters and animal welfare organizations have made efforts to reduce the population of animals in their care since the coronavirus pandemic started. The industry felt an overwhelming response from the public in the early days of the pandemic. With the use of technology, such as Facebook Live virtual tours and online meet-and-greets with the pets, the spike for fostering and adopting was seen.

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Even celebrities joined the bandwagon. Celebrities like Chris Evans, Olivia Munn, Henry Goulding, Millie Bobby Brown, Billie Eilish, and Cara Delevingne showed off their new furry friends in their respective social media accounts. Just last month, Google searches around "adopt a pet" increased by about 335%, according to findings from SEMrush.

Are shelters really empty amid the pandemic?

Most shelters describe themselves as empty or almost empty based on their success at getting animals fostered or adopted. But there are remaining animals, especially dogs, who are not adoptable for medical or behavioral reasons and a steady stream of strays are still coming in.

Bissell Pet Foundation recently partnered with 84 shelters across the country to help find homes for 3,200 dogs and cats under its first Empty the Shelters campaign, which offers reduced adoption fees.

The foundation surveyed 50 shelters and it showed that 14% had completely emptied their cages during the campaign, while 38% reported that they came close to emptying the shelter. The foundation is repeating the campaign with more shelters starting May 9.

What happens when pet parents return to work?

According to Jim Tedford, head of the National Association for Animal Welfare Advancement, one of their concerns is animals currently in foster care being returned to shelters when their caregivers go back to work. There is concern that shelter intakes will increase after the pandemic.

However, they are still looking at the positive side, since returning to work means that the people who lost their jobs during the pandemic will be able to pay for pet food and supplies and it could help decrease shelter populations from pets surrendered for economic reasons.