No Country for Pets: Why are Americans ditching their furry friends?

Animal shelters in the US are facing a crisis.

A slew of issues including workers heading back to the office, rising pet costs and lack of affordable housing has seen shelters left overflowing across the United States.

But what is happening exactly? And why is it happening?

Let’s take a closer look:

Shelter Animals Count estimates that the US shelter population grew by nearly a quarter-million animals in 2023.

As per Bloomberg, the number of strays taken in by shelters rose six per cent since 2022.

Shelter Animals Count says that number increased 22 per cent since 2021.

This comes in the backdrop of the pet population in the US spiking by six per cent in 2020 and four per cent in 2021, Bloomberg quoted pet healthcare company IDEXX Laboratories as saying.

The US pet population usually grows around one per cent per year.

The number of animals entering shelters began to climb in 2021, after a pandemic-related dip.

Adoptions haven’t kept pace with the influx of pets – creating a snowballing population problem for many shelters.

Things are so bad that New York’s largest animal shelter in December said it would no longer be taking in dogs.

“We’re having to create space in a way that we haven’t had to before,” Zoe Kenney of Animal Care Centers said.

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Kenney told the outlet she gets as many as 20 calls per day from owners asking if they can bring in their dogs.

The shelter limited cat intakes to only the most urgent cases for several weeks this summer and similarly limited dog intakes for six weeks beginning 7 October.

Many New York City shelters also were keeping dogs in offices, as well as hallways, to avoid having to euthanise them.

Shelter Animals Count executive director Stephanie Filer told Bloomberg, “Shelters are quite literally at crisis and some of them are making the decision to close their doors or reduce hours of operation or reduce the kind of animals that they bring in.”

But while the issue is sometimes blamed on owners abandoning “pandemic puppies” purchased during the COVID-19 lockdowns, advocates and operators say the evidence actually points to economic factors such as higher pet care costs and housing insecurity.

“The economy right now is really challenging for a lot of families,” said Kim Alboum of the Bissell Pet Foundation, a national animal welfare organization.

“And with the housing crisis, people are losing their homes and are having to downsize or move in with others. And this is a recipe for disaster for people that have larger dogs.”

Kenney agrees.

“Sometimes people are choosing between putting food on their plate and putting food on their pet’s plate,” she told Bloomberg.

“Animals will come to us as a result of surrender for life experiences that people are dealing with,” Mike Keiley, vice president of the Animal Protection Division at MSPCA-Angell Adoption Center told NBC Boston.

“One, animals being driven into our shelter because people aren’t allowed to bring their animals with them when they are transitioning to new housing,” said Keiley. “And we’re also seeing it as a barrier to being able to place some of our dogs, even when there are willing and wonderful people to adopt them. Their restrictions on what they’re allowed to have in their dwelling becomes a barrier for them to be able to complete an adoption.”

‘Beyond full’

While dogs like Kaine are looking for a home, they end up staying at worker’s offices while awaiting adoption.

The shelter near Albany, New York, is “beyond full,” said CEO Ashley Jeffrey Bouck. That means the gray and white seven-year-old — along with his crate, dog bed and chewy toys — has to share space with a staffer, a desk and file cabinets.

“He is one of our ‘office fosters’ as we’re calling it,” Bouck said as she visited Kaine’s office recently.

“They are here all day and all night. They are not going into a kennel because we don’t have a kennel for them to go into.”

Overcrowded shelters with limited space are more of a dog problem than a cat problem, advocates say.

Mohawk Hudson, for instance, has a lot of pit bulls, mastiffs and cane corsos.

Some people can no longer afford to care for their pets, particularly when it comes to the rising cost of veterinarian services. Advocates say a shortage of veterinarians has exacerbated the problem by reducing access to care.

North of New York City, Ulster County SPCA executive director Gina Carbonari said she’s noticed more people coming in to their pet food pantry to ask for dog food in recent months.

The tumultuous housing market has added to the problem. Bouck said that when evictions increase, so too does the number of stray animals. When renters move into new, more affordable housing, they often encounter restrictions on pets, with larger dogs and pit bulls more likely to be barred.

“So you have to make a choice now,” Carbonari said, ”‘Well, do I have housing? Or am I going to be homeless with my dog?‘’’

In Ohio, the number of animals surrendered to the Cleveland Animal Protective League due to housing or financial challenges jumped by 56 per  cent this year to 388. That includes people who can’t afford the care, have a conflict with their landlord, are moving or have no home.

The number of stray cats and kittens brought in by good Samaritans also has increased significantly.

Advocates say they’re seeing shelters that have not had to euthanise animals recently rely again on the practice to help control overpopulation. Some cities have required owners to spay or neuter their pets, but often such policies aren’t enforced.

Around the country, shelters and advocates are working to reduce intakes and encourage more adoptions.

That includes expanding foster programs that send animals to temporary homes instead of shelters. Other programs ease the financial burden of owning a dog or a cat, through pet food pantries and veterinary services like spay and neuter clinics.

Last year Mohawk Hudson reduced the number of its contracts with municipalities to take in strays and has decided not to keep taking in pets surrendered from owners.

Increasing adoptions is especially crucial, argued Best Friends Animal Society CEO Julie Castle, saying that millions of people buy new pets each year even as hundreds of thousands of animals die in shelters.

“We know people are going to get pets, so let’s go back to the basics of really … marketing adoptions, because at the end of the day, we are in a competitive space with breeders and pet stores,” Castle said.

The national animal welfare organisation, which runs a sanctuary in Utah, partners with businesses and shelters and rescue groups to run adoption events around the country, where adoption fees are waived or reduced.

While some shelters have responded to the crush by adding more capacity, advocates believe a long-term solution has to confront the reasons why shelters are resorting to housing animals in their offices.

“People will say, ‘Oh, can’t you just build more kennels?’” Bouck said. “And we could fill those up in two seconds.”

With inputs from agencies