There are many factors that may be contributing to a nationwide animal welfare crisis but there is always something we can do to help.
If you are a foster parent with Gateway Pet Guardians (GPG), you probably get several emails per week exclaiming something something along the lines of "We are full! We can't help any more dogs unless you foster!" And that message has now been echoed for months. Unfortunately, we are not the only shelter shouting this message from the rooftops, animal shelters nationwide are in an absolute space crisis. But why? I have a few theories based on what we see every day at GPG and decided to do some research to see if these theories hold up.
Theory #1- Inflation/Cost of Pet Care
This article from the Washington Post dives deep into the issue of shelter overcrowding and shared that 35% of pet owners surveyed reported that they are "concerned about the expense of having a pet in the current economy" and 50% of those who are concerned reported that they may have to give up their pet due to the cost. “When the economy is struggling, families are struggling,” said Lindsay Hamrick, director of shelter outreach and engagement at the Humane Society of the United States.
This article from News Nation (which also quotes our very own staff member Katie Anderson!) looks into the rising cost of pet food. News Nation reports that "Pet food inflation is outpacing even high human grocery costs, up almost 15% from last year, leading to a growing number of families facing a heartbreaking choice between feeding their pets and paying for their own necessities."
In an article from October 2022, petfoodindustry.com, shared that while overall inflation was about 8% at the time, inflation for the overall U.S. pet care sector reached 11% YOY in September and veterinary services were up 12%.
All this research points to pet ownership being very difficult for pet owners to afford, especially those with low income or living in poverty. We have seen the high cost and lack of accessibility to pet food play a large part in the demands for pet food in our own retail store and pet food pantry.
Theory #2- Pet Overpopulation
The University of Florida blames lack of spay/neuter surgeries during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic as a factor for the number of dogs and cats piling up in shelters. Spay and neuter surgeries were not considered "essential" surgeries during the start of the pandemic and therefore were put on hold across the country for many months. Based on their research, they estimate that the US is behind by 2.7 MILLION spay/neuter surgeries, causing an unfathomable number of unwanted litters, which end up in shelters across the nation. Our own shelter is in the same boat, with our waitlist for owned pet and community cat spay/neuter surgeries being backed up 3-6 months at all times.
In addition to the growing number of unwanted litters, shelters are seeing less people interested in taking home a new pet. The Washington Post found that "More than 23 million American households — nearly 1 in 5 nationwide — adopted a pet during the pandemic". So, a large number of Americans already got a pet in the last two years, which means that they are not currently looking for a pet.
So, there are more pets in the United States than ever before and less people looking for pets than ever before, making it take longer for pets to get adopted, which keeps kennels and foster homes filled for longer. Our shelter alone has seen a 30% increase in length of stay over this time last year.
Theory #3- The Housing Crisis
For GPG, housing issues are probably the biggest contributing factors in pet owners needing to relinquish their pets. Every day, we work with pet owners who have lost or are in jeopardy of losing their housing due to financial difficulties, breed and pet bans/fees, house fires and homes being condemned.
The below chart from The National Low Income Housing Coalition explains the many complex housing issues from a shortage of affordable housing to to underfunded programs.
During the start of the pandemic, evictions were put on hold by the US Government. Now, with the eviction ban lifted, there is the possibility of mass evictions happening, causing many pet owners to lose their homes and have to give up their beloved pets. According to an article by NBC News, "nearly 7.8 million Americans said they were behind on their rent and 3 million felt they were likely to be evicted in the next two months".
Besides the rising cost of housing and rising number of evictions, pet owners in our area were also hit hard by the devastating flood on July 26, which caused over 700 homes in our county (St. Clair County) to be damaged or destroyed.
Last but not least, many pet owners across the United States are forced to give up their beloved dogs due to Breed Specific Legislation (BSL). BSL is “law passed by a legislative body pertaining to a specific breed or breeds of domesticated animals.” It generally refers to laws pertaining to a specific dog breed or breeds. Within the last few decades, breed-specific legislation has specifically targeted pit-bull type dogs" Not only do many cities and towns ban pit-bull type dogs (you can read my thoughts and research on pit bulls here), many landlords also ban pit bulls, making it less likely for pit bulls to be adopted and pit bull owners making a decision between giving up their dog or losing their housing.
Low income, pit bull owning families truly have the odds stacked against them being able to stay in their home and keep their beloved pet.
So...where do we go from here?
All of this research certainly makes things seem bleak- there are more homeless pets than ever before, there are less people looking for pets than ever before and it is very costly to own a pet and stay in a home. However, I, the eternal optimist, know that we can all do our part to curb the shelter overpopulation problem. For you, the reader, I can't stress enough how important it is to choose adopting from a shelter vs. a breed, getting your pets spayed/neutered, donating to organizations (like GPG) that provide free and equitable resources to pet owners in need, or donating to other organizations that provide housing assistance to those in need. If you are not in a place to be able to adopt or donate, I encourage you to foster or volunteer. There is no cost to fostering with GPG (we provide all supplies!) and we have endless volunteer opportunities. Volunteering and fostering saves the organization money on staffing so that we can spend more funds on providing resources to pet owners so that they can keep their pets. Fostering also plays a huge part in preventing shelter overpopulation so that we can keep kennels open for dogs and cats who need us. Click here to check out all of the opportunities to help on our website. There is a long road ahead and the struggle will be ongoing, but I believe if we all do our part, we can make a difference in the lives of pets and the people who love them.
