As you have probably heard by now, animal shelters across the nation are not okay. 250,000 pets are waiting desperately in shelters and rescues, hoping to catch the attention and heart of just one person who could change everything for them. For animal welfare professionals, this is the worst situation they’ve seen since long before the pandemic. For the first time in several years, ‘euthanasia for space,’ is becoming a horrifying reality again. In the face of shelter space crises, we also see shelters doing every possible thing they can to save lives, issuing public alerts, waiving all fees, holding massive adoption events, and making it easy for everyone to help.
There is some good news though, and it comes from aggregated animal shelter data. First, we are not seeing a massive increase in people surrendering their pets, nor are we seeing overall intake rates exceeding those of 2019. More than half of the pets entering shelters are still coming in as lost or stray. We’re also not seeing the mythological ‘pandemic puppy’ dump, wherein the media speculated that people who adopted pets during the pandemic were now returning them in huge numbers to shelters. For a deep dive into the data about what’s happening in shelters right now, check out this great presentation by Susanne Kogut at Petco Love.
So why are things so bad? While all animal shelter and pet data is incomplete and must be carefully contextualized, what we do know can provide some clues. Additionally, while I’ve listed some general reasons, these are not consistent among all communities and there are vast differences in the quality of animal services, intake, care, and outcomes depending on the region and individual shelter operations.
1. Unequal distribution of resources.
The disparity among various shelters, both in terms of resources and the number of pets entering the municipal or government-contracted shelter, existed long before the pandemic, but its effects have been exacerbated over the past several years. For example, one shelter that takes in 20,000 pets has an operating budget of just over $3 million dollars while another shelter in a different part of the country that takes in 4,000 pets has an operating budget of $15 million dollars. Another way of looking at this is through per capita spending. In some places, per capita spending on animal services is just $3 whereas in others it is $30. What this means is some organizations functionally cannot succeed based on their resources while others have resources far in excess of what they need to operate.
2. Uneven distribution of pets.
Pets are also unequally distributed among shelters and regions. In many places, shelters are ‘euthanizing for space’ daily or weekly due to critical capacity while hundreds of kennels sit empty in others. If we looked at the total number of pets nationwide at any given time against the number of kennels and foster homes available at any given time, we would see the sad, unrealized truth: we always have enough homes and kennels available. This uneven distribution also exists on a community level when the municipal organization has little or relatively less funding and takes in all the pets while the local non-profit organization takes in just a few local pets has relatively more money and resources. The solution is looking at the overall problem at various scales – within communities, states, regions, and nationally.
3. Competition for the ‘golden egg’ pets.
Another issue that isn’t new but is immediately relevant is that only a few pets that enter a shelter are considered ‘highly desirable.’ One common question municipal shelter directors get asked is “Why don’t you send more to rescues?” For most shelters, only a tiny fraction of their pets are eligible due to criteria imposed by the receiving agencies. This means only a handful of animals in the shelter will make the cut, and those pets are sought after by adopters, rescue groups, non-profit shelters, and transport receiving agencies.
4. Intakes are outpacing outcomes.
As this report from Shelter Animals Count shows, more animals are entering animal shelters than are leaving, sustaining an imbalance in the system. In other words, the process of moving animals through the system from intake to care to outcomes has slowed down, meaning pets are stuck in shelters for longer periods of time. In practical terms, this means more shelters are at or above capacity and there are few or no empty kennels for incoming pets. Additionally, dog euthanasia is higher this year than before the pandemic and cat euthanasia has returned to pre-pandemic levels. This imbalance, and related overcrowding and euthanasia, could be corrected with one, massive push for foster and/or adoption placement.
5. Vet shortage.
There is a national shortage of veterinarians, which means getting pets spayed or neutered and ready for adoption is taking longer. Thousands of healthy, friendly pets are waiting in shelters for days, weeks, and even months awaiting routine medical care that will make them adoption-ready. Luckily, many organizations are allowing pets to go to foster and adoptive homes while they wait for their appointment dates, which can decrease the negative impact on length of stay in shelters.
6. Worry about the future.
During the pandemic, animal shelters experienced a period of relief from the relentless ‘hamster wheel’ of intake, care, outcomes, and repeat. They saw hope for a better future in which more pets could be helped in their communities. They began building a new foundation to provide medical support, housing advocacy, crisis boarding, and reunification services so intake could be reserved for the pets that truly needed shelter. What we’re seeing now is a correction in the system and a return to pre-pandemic levels of intake. Now, while we can still see a different future, our hope that it’s within our reach is dimming in the midst of the immediate, and seemingly unending crises. The ‘return to normal’ is exhausting and it can feel like we should just give up and give in. In truth, we can fix the problem through relatively simple solutions like foster care and adoptions, but we’ll have to work collectively to do so.
7. Loss of institutional knowledge.
Most of the people working in shelters today are not the same as the ones who were there at the onset of the pandemic. Because of high turnover rates at all levels of shelter professionals, the majority of people leading and working in shelters today started during a time when intake was historically low, which means the intense pressure and speed of at-capacity sheltering is relatively new to them. On top of that, shelters rely heavily on the institutional knowledge of longtime staff members, especially during tough times. When these staff members are no longer there, shelters have to figure it out without historical knowledge.
8. When people struggle, animals struggle.
People’s likes are more precarious than before the pandemic. One of the less understood reasons for pet surrender is that many people surrender pets because they are overwhelmed. You can’t read the news today without hearing about how people are struggling with housing loss, mental health, increased work pressure, and all the other impacts of COVID on their lives. People need more help with their pets than before and they’re often in immediate crisis. Shelter workers are not only helping pets, but they’re attempting to help people in crisis, something they don’t have the training, time, or resources to do. This isn’t just impacting workers’ wellbeing. It’s also putting them in unsafe situations and occasionally subjecting them to acts of violence and harm.
9. Public expectations.
Shelters are balancing intake, basic care standards, and live outcomes in the midst of staffing shortages and turnover. The struggle is fairly simple, but it plays out within the landscape of relationships among the public, government officials, volunteers, advocates, shelter workers, and the pets themselves. The pressure to provide excellent or at least adequate services in all three of these areas will eventually push the animal welfare field towards innovation and a One Health systems approach, but we’re just beginning to see the construction of a new foundation that is capable of helping pets where they live in lieu of impoundment and rehoming.
10. Self-imposed barriers.
In some cases, animal shelters are making the problem worse. This happens when they self-impose arbitrary barriers to outcomes like home visits, vet checks, and landlord checks for adoption. Even in times of great challenges, animal shelters have a responsibility to engage the public, communicate the why, hear public feedback, and invite volunteers and animal advocates to be part of the solution. Last, there are also a lot of things that do work to get animals out alive in moments of crisis – we need to pour resources into our foster and volunteer programs, hold adoption events, and transparently communicate with the public.
This is, without question, a bad moment for animal sheltering, and pets’ lives are on the line. However, this could also be the moment when we change everything. To do so, we’ll have to come together again, just as we did at the start of the pandemic, to solve the root causes that are leading to 4 to 5 million pets entering shelters annually. The answers are right at our fingertips and whether we find them or not will depend on us.
