Puppies, purebreds among list of animals in shelters
Animals are staying longer, adding to problem
Among the many strays taken in this year by the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter in suburban Cleveland was a vibrant 8-year-old black Labrador, weighing in at nearly 90 pounds.
He was the kind of dog the shelter at one time would have considered an easy adoption – social and handsome, with “a phenomenal personality,” said shelter administrator Mindy Naticchioni.
“Pre-pandemic, he would have been there a short time,” Naticchioni said. “People would have been lining up to get him. But he was with us for almost two months.”
The Cuyahoga County shelter situation illustrates the ongoing boom taking place in shelter facilities across the nation. Nearly a quarter of a million more pets are in shelters compared with the same time in 2022, according to one animal advocacy agency, exacerbating conditions for facilities already experiencing a pet population crisis.
Shelter Animals Count, an Atlantabased nonprofit organization that maintains a national database of sheltered animal statistics, said about 245,000 more dogs and cats were in shelters awaiting adoption or fostering over the holiday season, marking the third straight year that the tally rose.
“The number indicates that shelters are managing higher populations than they have the necessary capacity for,” said Stephanie Filer, executive director of Shelter Animals Count. “This isn’t a sustainable gap. It’s something that needs to be resolved quickly, or we will see a reduction of services or an increase in euthanasia.”
The Cuyahoga County shelter is designed to house a population of 111 but has met or exceeded that total multiple times this year, Naticchioni said. Before the pandemic, dogs typically remained in the shelter for 15 to 18 days before being adopted or fostered out, she said; that range is now 28 to 30 days.
At the same time, the number of animals in the shelter per day has jumped from about 90 or 100 before the pandemic to close to 140 now.
“It’s not so much that we’re taking in more. They’re just staying substantially longer,” she said.
The estimated number of pets taken in by animal shelters annually ranges from 4 to 6 million.
While cats “are faring pretty well,” Filer said, dog adoptions are down 1.2% from 2022, Shelter Animals Count reported. Meanwhile, 5% more animals entered facilities in 2023 than left.
Shelters are seeing unprecedented numbers of puppies, Filer said – not to mention doodles, oodles and poos – as more small-breed dogs, purebreds and so-called “designer dogs” end up in such facilities for the same economic, logistical and behavioral reasons that other dogs do. Nearly 4 in 5 shelters replying to a Shelter Animals Count national survey said people “would be surprised” by the types of dogs in their populations.
Shelter Animals Count cited the rising side hustle of home breeding and the ongoing problem of puppy mills among the reasons for the increase. More than half of shelters responding to the survey said they had taken in dogs from owners who had bought high-priced puppies that they were then unable to keep and breeders disposing of unsold puppies no longer wanted or needed.
Filer said while the number of owners surrendering dogs hasn’t necessarily increased, the number of strays has.
The overcrowding issues come as shelters face budget cuts and staffing shortages, competing with the service industry for potential employees.
Meanwhile, staff reductions and a national shortage of veterinarians make it difficult for shelters to keep up with adequate wellness care. One national study estimated that about 2.7 million spay and neuter surgeries were not performed as a result of the pandemic as animal shelters suspended services seen as nonessential, “which is why we’re seeing more shelters with puppies,” Filer said.
Shelter Animals Count encourages potential owners seeking to adopt dogs to visit local shelters and rescues or to use adoption databases such as AdoptAPet.com to find animals that need to be rehomed. Pets adopted from shelters and rescues generally also have the benefit of being already spayed or neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.