For dogs, bad times are not so bad at all
Animal shelters across the United States are experiencing a boom in the adoption of pets, especially dogs, as the COVID- 19 pandemic causes isolation at home and feelings of loneliness.
Pet stores and dog breeders are reporting waiting lists stretching into next year for buying pets.
The surge in pet adoption began in March when COVID- 19 lockdowns started. The organization Detroit Dog Rescue received 350 applications for foster dogs in the first two days of the city’s shutdown, a Detroit affiliate of ABC News reported.
Now Michigan Humane reports that its weekly adoption rate has risen about 16 percent compared with before the pandemic, averaging about 160 to 175 adoptions a week.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or ASPCA, a nonprofit shelter, reported that during the first few weeks of shelter- in- place measures, the number of animals going to foster homes through its programs in New York and Los Angeles rose almost 70 percent compared with the corresponding period last year.
At Animal Care Centers of New York, about 25 percent of those who agreed to take in foster dogs temporarily at the start of the pandemic’s first wave had adopted them permanently by late June. Usually, that foster- turned- adopter number is 10 percent, Katy Hansen, director of marketing and communications, told The Washington Post.
In late June the ASPCA in Los Angeles reported adoptions were double their usual rate, with 10 or 13 a day, the Post quoted Madeline Bernstein, the organization’s local president, as saying. A waiting list had formed for certain types of dogs, and for puppies in general, because so few were left in the shelter, she said.
“My inventory is low,” Bernstein said. “All the shelters are in the same boat, but people still want to adopt.”
When the virus initially struck in spring, adoptions consisted of people helping to clear the shelters before they had to shut down.
Bernstein said there was continuing demand as a second virus wave hit.
“There’s been a realization that this is going to go on for a while. People will not be getting on planes to travel. They’re going to plan staycations or driving vacations that are more amenable to pets. So they’ ll adopt now. This is like a second group of people on a whole other timeline.”
Increase in investment
Breeders, too, reported unusual levels of business continuing into midsummer. Hank Grosenbacher, a breeder of Pembroke Welsh Corgis who owns Heartland Sales in Cabool, Missouri, where commercially licensed breeders often buy and sell dogs as breeding stock, said that by late June some breeders were investing more heavily than usual in puppies they could raise into breeding- age dogs.
Other breeders were reporting pet stores buying full litters of puppies that had not been born yet, putting money down in advance just to try to keep inventory in the pipeline.
Though the pet adoptions are good news, shelter directors are worried that as US citizens return to work there could be an increase in dogs being abandoned.
“While we have general ideas and can make good guesses; we really don’t know how this will turn out,” Bernstein said.
As pet ownership continues to rise, the demand for pet- related products and services has also grown.
Walmart recently launched Walmart Pet Care to offer a “full range” of pet products and services to its estimated 90 million customers who own pets, including offering insurance, dog- walking and pet- sitting.
Dogs are the most popular pets, with about 63.4 dogs owned per million US households, followed by cats, at 42.7 per million, and fish, birds and reptiles.