After pet boom, need for aid surges
Owners struggling to cover costs of care reach out for relief
A year after a spike in pet adoptions during the coronavirus pandemic, Connecticut animal organizations are seeing a growing need as pet owners find themselves struggling with joblessness and reduced incomes.
The Connecticut Humane Society and other local pet-relief organizations have seen a surge in people calling for financial help in caring for their pets.
“People who are up against tough times, to where they can’t afford food or medical treatment, in the past they felt that they would have to give up the pet,” said James Bias, executive director of the Connecticut Humane Society.
“That mind set has been changing for years. We’ve been shifting our efforts, trying to keep pets in homes rather than move them out of homes into our shelter and then to someone else’s home,” he said. Instead, the society offers pet food and veterinary assistance to people who may not be able to afford those things.
Veterinary care
Patrizia Cavone is one of the pet owners who flocked to the CHS Fox Clinic in Newington in the last year. Cavone, of Norwalk, saw her hair-styling business flatline when the state went into lockdown. As an independent worker, she was not eligible for unemployment. Then her pet guinea pig, Brownie, got sick.
“She started to bleed. I wasn’t sure what to do,” said Cavone, a single mother. “I called different places and went to a vet and they were so expensive just to get an X-ray. I love my pet. I started Googling about what to do and came to the Humane Society.”
It turns out Brownie had an ovarian cyst. The Humane Society diagnosed it and helped Cavone negotiate a better price with her vet. Instead of paying $800, Cavone spent only about $300.
Best of all, Brownie is well. “She’s perfectly healthy now and as hyper as can be,” Cavone said.
Food
Need for food has increased as well since the health crisis began, said Elizabeth Abbe of Aid a Pet, a Hartford community pet-assistance initiative.
“People in Hartford, especially Frog Hollow, are kind of living on the edge. They can barely afford food for themselves, gas,” she said. “Even before COVID, so many were unemployed. That number has increased dramatically because of COVID.”
Abbe said even their clients who did not intend to own dogs — such as those who took in strays — endeavor to meet those pets’ needs.
“They would get food from Foodshare and and they would give their pets human food, which depleted the resources of Foodshare and didn’t get pets the nutrition they needed,” Abbe said. “We set up a pet food pantry to distribute it in Hartford, so they can always count on being able to stock up at least twice a month.”
Previous crises
The Humane Society has been distributing pet food for companion animals — dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds — on its own, as well as working with agencies such as Foodshare and CT Food Bank and the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. The society also took the unprecedented step of mailing pet food to clients via Amazon, to prevent in-person contact.
This isn’t the first time the Humane Society has seen a sudden upsurge in requests, Bias said. “We had a similar situation during federal workers shutdown in 2018 and 2019. We saw a spike in requests for pet food from federal workers temporarily without a job or income,” he said.
Adoptions still spiking
But while the society’s pet welfare programs were spiking, the society continued in its traditional role of offering pets for adoption.
That spiked, too, as families stuck at home wanted a pet for comfort and companionship. From March to December, Bias said, the society placed 875 pets, but got 2,845 applications.
Some pets the Humane Society re-homed have come after their owners died of COVID-19, he said. Others come to the society for more traditional reasons, like Kevin, a 9-year-old puggle whose family had to move in February and couldn’t take him with them. Kevin, after a stint in the Fox clinic, is currently waiting for a home.
Susan Linker is CEO and founder of Our Companions in Manchester and Ashford, which focuses on specialneeds animals. She has seen a spike in adoptions even in pets whohave been rejected for adoption for more than a year.
“Animals that people wouldn’t have considered adopting were adopted because so many people are looking,” Linker said. “That’s a bright spot.”
Surrenders on the horizon?
Bias said after a year of upheaval caused by the coronavirus, CHS is wondering about another kind of possible upheaval on the horizon: What will happen when people feel safe enough to go back to their previous lives?
“They will return to their normal schedules, work and traveling. Will the pets be pushed off to the side because life is getting back to what it was?” he said.
Jody Macrina, president of East Hartford-based Protectors of Animals, agrees. “Some of us are expecting more of an influx of these adopted dogs,” she said.
Both Macrina and Bias, however, hope that will not happen.
“We think there might be a surge in pets being surrendered, but hopefully many people won’t do that. People who have had enough time with them find that pets became a major part of their lives. They will modify their life schedules to keep their pets,” said Bias
“Pets become an emotional anchor when people are homebound. They give people a reason to get up and a survival mechanism to get through Zoom meetings.”