The volunteers at Friends of Palm Beach County Animal Care are cheering after every dog was adopted and the kennel was empty for the first time ever.
America's animal shelters have been transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic by surging adoptions and fosters and plummeting pet populations. But be sure of this: Shelters will never run out of animals in need.
In fact, few shelters are empty, notwithstanding the cheery videos you may have seen. Most still have adoptable cats and dogs, though there might be a waiting list to get one.
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The heartening news is that Americans have stepped up by the tens of thousands to adopt, foster or just clean cages at their local sheltersassocial distancing, combined with reduced staffing, has closed facilities to the public and sent adoption processes online.
WhenDumb Friends League, a private animal shelter in Denver, put out a call for volunteers to foster dogs, cats, bunnies, guinea pigsand evenhorses, more than 2, 200 people signed up.
People are saying, 'I just really want to help andfeel like I’m making a difference in some shape or form, ' says shelter spokeswoman Maia Brusseau.
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But they haven't run out of animals, says Brusseau; far from it. Dumb Friends is the largest shelter in the Rocky Mountain region, caring for 21, 000 animals last year. Earlier this week, there were 1, 115 dogs, cats and other small animals in its care, including fosters, and that total changes hourly, she says.
The industry moved quickly in the early days of the pandemic to adapt tonew technology, such as Facebook Live virtual tours and online meet-and-greets with available pets. They hoped to spike fostering and adopting. It worked.
One positive thing about this is that we got the word out about the shelter to people who might not have been as aware, says Jessica Gutmann, operations manager at Santa Rosa County Animal Services in the Florida Panhandle.I think we will be getting a lot more support from the community going forward.
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In a videointerview with USA TODAY, the Captain America star was asked to share his tips for coping with quarantine. “Adopt a dog! Everyone should go out and get a dog. If you don't have a dog in your life, especially during this time, you're missing out, he gushed as he panned the camera over to his mutt Dodger.
It's no wonder that in the last month, Google searches around adopt a pet surged about 335% in volume, according to findings from SEMrush, a data and trends analytics company.
Now that so many are working from home, shelters around the country are offering up pet fostering as a way to help a pet in need and combat isolation.
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Shelters describethemselves as emptyor near empty, at least temporarily, based on their success at getting animals fostered or adopted quickly. But often there are remaining animals, especially dogs, who aren't adoptable for medical or behavioral reasons, plus a steady stream of strayscoming in.
The Michigan-basedBissell Pet Foundationrecently partnered with 84 shelters around the country to help find homes for nearly 3, 200 dogs and cats under its first pandemic-reliefEmpty the Shelterscampaign, which offers reduced adoption fees.
When the foundation surveyed50 of those shelters, 14% had completely emptiedtheir cages during the campaign, while 38% reported they came close to emptying, according tofoundation spokeswomanBri Olson.The foundation is repeating the campaign with more shelters starting May 9.
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At thePalm Beach Animal Care and Control shelter in Florida, the local CBS station filmed the historic day on April 15 showing rows of empty cages with scores of masked volunteers standing at the open doors and cheering.
As the shelter noted, it was one empty kennel out of three, so the shelter wasn't entirely empty, but just the fact we can say we have one of our kennels empty (for the first time ever) is amazing, spokeswoman Elizabeth Harfmann told the TV station.
The shelters are never, ever completely empty of animals, says John Welsh, spokesman for the sprawlingRiverside County Animal Services Department in California, which also celebrated a temporary clear-out in one of its four shelters in early April.
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But Welsh says an empty kennel just means there were no adoptable dogs (meaning not quarantined or ill) on that day. In part, he attributed that to the shelter's success in pushing adoptions and fosters – 1, 600 so far.
That's a pretty insane figure– we don’t get that kind of math in a regular year, Welsh says. But the population is always changingdaily. Our call volume is down because people are home and their dogs are not getting out, but we are always going to have animals in our shelters.
Jennifer Bilodeau of Cornelius, North Carolina, slipped into the Lake Norman Humane Society in nearbyMooresville this month just before the state's stay-at-home order, with an eye to adopt another cat. Eventually, she took home ablack kitten with green eyes whom she named Roe.
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People have the time (now), we’re home so why not? Bilodeau says. There's no reason not to do it, considering that they're better off in your living room than in a shelter.
At Miami-Dade Animal Services, which takes care of up to 30, 000 animals a year, director Alex Munoz says the population isway down, even though the shelter continues to take in animals.
We went from a typical 350 (adoptable) dogs to as low as 15 dogs and we currently have 30 to 40 now, Munoz says.
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Meanwhile, he says, the foster rate surged between mid-March and mid-April.Last year we had 62 dog fosters (during the period) and we had 224 during the same period this year.
One of the concerns is animals currently in foster care being returned to shelters when their caregivers go back to work, says Jim Tedford, head of the national Association for Animal Welfare Advancement.There is concern that shelter intakes will skyrocket after the pandemic.
This is a great fear for people likeBarbara Lipson, who runs 4Paws Rescue Team in Fairfax County, Virginia, a private rescue group that finds homes for 400 cats and kittens every year.Even before the pandemic, 4Pawsrequired adopters to return their cats ifthey became unable to care for the pet because of illness, job loss, orneed to move.
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So normally, about 30 to 40 of our adopted cats are returned each year, Lipson says. COVID-19 may double or triple that number, in addition to the cats and kittens not previously adopted that will need homes.
But returning to work means people who lost their jobs during lockdowns will be better able to pay for pet food and supplies, thus avoiding increased shelter populations from pets surrendered for economic reasons.
It could also reduce the long lines at pet-food giveaway events organized by shelters and pet-food companies, such as the one in mid-April at Miami-Dade County Animal Services, when more than 500 cars turned up two hours before the start and they ran out of food after distributing 11, 000 pounds.They're already planning a bigger giveaway for May.
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