Furbabies, Not So Furry Babies Provide Unconditional Love

Post-pandemic pet surrenders at higher rates than adoptions.

When governments mandated that people shelter in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees who could do their jobs from home were doing just that. Kids were put into virtual learning environments and pets were wondering why their humans never left the house.

Some of those humans without furry companions decided it would be great to have animal companionship to fill the void of no water cooler gossip or lunches with coworkers. Furthermore, dog walking remained an accessible form of physical activity. And people may have sought out pets to reduce levels of stress, anxiety and loneliness caused by the pandemic and the lifestyle changes it necessitated, according to a report from Best Friends, a pet advocacy organization.

Several studies have reported that public demand for acquiring or fostering a new pet grew shortly after March 2020. Despite people commonly spending more time at home during the pandemic and many reports indicating that the demand for pets grew as a result of COVID-19, shelter data shows that raw numbers of adoptions from shelters and rescues were actually lower in 2020 than in 2019.

Planned PEThood

Nobody knows that better than Laura Frost, Director of Organizational Development for Planned PEThood of Georgia.

“During the onset of the pandemic, when everybody was closing down, there was this amazing surge of animal rescues. You saw stories on every news outlet about how shelters were emptied, and everybody adopted a cat or a dog… you know, it was just wonderful,” said Frost.

“It was something that had never really happened before, because [now] everybody was at home and had time for the pets, and they wanted companionship.”

While most people who had been in animal welfare for a long time were celebrating this unprecedented swell of love for strays, they knew that the other shoe would drop eventually. But Frost said that, like her, they tried to be hopeful and optimistic.

“We knew it was probably going to hit the fan at some point. I think that’s what everybody is starting to see now, as people begin to enter the workforce again and they are not at home,” she said. “Families and kids went back to school, the world shifted, maybe people lost jobs or moved or whatever it may be. They are starting to surrender the animals to shelters.”

Now that the humans are gone a good portion of the day, those pets that were lavished with attention may have separation anxiety, Frost explained. “The dog or the puppy that gave so much love during the pandemic maybe wasn’t trained really well…” and now they’re ripping up the carpet and becoming a problem.

While many dogs and cats are coming in, not nearly as many are going out. “We’ve got animals being surrendered on a larger scale than we were accustomed to because, sadly, those animals would have been euthanized. A lot of the animals that were adopted during the pandemic would have never made it out,” Frost said.

She added that she believes some people are concerned about inflation and their finances and may not be willing to take on a new financial obligation.

“The shelters are kind of stuck. They’re lowering adoption fees and getting creative,” Frost said. “They’re using social media and doing all these things to try and get the animals adopted, but it’s a supply and demand issue. Right now, the supply is really high and the demand is really low.”

Furkids

Another non-profit organization dedicated to animal welfare, Furkids was founded in 2001 when Atlantan Samantha Shelton discovered a hungry mother cat and her three kittens quivering on her porch. Local animal control told Shelton the family would likely be euthanized, as they did not have space, but Shelton was determined to save the felines.

What started out as a cat rescue has now found homes for more than 50,000 animals in the metro area. Headquartered in Cumming with an adoption center in Peachtree Corners, Furkids has partnered with Petco and PetSmart to offer adoptions at several retail outlets in the area.

Help is available

Both organizations work with the community to the benefit of our furry friends. Offering low-cost spay and neuter clinics and other pet assistance, they strive for a world where no pet is euthanized.

“For a lot of people, it might be a struggle to care for their animals, whether it’s at the beginning stages of adopting the animal and needing to get it spayed or neutered or vaccinated, or just learning what they need to do to be a good pet owner,” Frost said. “Maybe they have a five- or seven-year-old pet and it’s gotten an ear infection and they’re strapped for cash and they’re struggling,” said Frost.

Frost wants pet owners to know that there is help. Many organizations in the area offer training and low-cost solutions that can help pets and their people get through the rough patches — and many food banks offer pet food.

“Those are the kinds of programs that we really strive for,” said Frost. Planned PEThood has a rescue and adoption program that places 1,000 to 1,200 animals a year and its low-cost spay and neuter clinic has performed close to 80,000 surgeries since it began offering them.

“Where most clinics maybe do two or three a day, we’re going to do about 60,” said Frost, adding that the clinic doesn’t handle more specialized surgeries.