Animal shelters face crisis as Americans abandon their pets in droves

Pet shelters across the country are dangerously overcrowded, struggling to keep up with this year’s massive influx of returned or abandoned dogs.

During the pandemic, as Americans were confined to their homes, an estimated 23 million U.S. families adopted pets in what was dubbed the pandemic pet adoption boom. Unfortunately, the trend did not last, and in an increasingly inflation-fraught economy, many pet owners were forced to leave man’s best friend behind.

This summer, animal shelters began reporting critical overcapacity, sounding the alarm that healthy pets were being euthanized at alarming rates.

“We’re putting down good dogs,” one shelter acknowledged, according to a recent survey exposing a significant surge in euthanizations. “Perfectly adoptable dogs are losing their lives and it is a crisis.”

“We have to euthanize marginal dogs because we don’t have the bandwidth to give them what they need,” another shelter concurred. “We have to choose between helping the dogs who are struggling a little and those who are struggling a lot.”

SEE ALSO: The embarrassing reality of U.S. education, ‘you can’t drop much lower’

Due to a change in policy making it more difficult for owners to return their animals directly to the shelter, humane societies also recorded an uptick “in the number of people abandoning their dogs and cats, leaving them to die in the dangerous summer heat.” One source even reported an “epidemic of people abandoning their pets at airports.” Nor is the problem confined to America. According to the Animal and Veterinary Service, Singapore, for example, experienced a 38 percent increase in pet abandonments in 2022 over 2021. In November, the U.K. reported a 48 percent increase.

Animal welfare reporter Kenny Torrella noted “the main reason so many people are giving up their pets — especially dogs — is because they simply can’t afford to keep them.”

“For low-income families, it’s hard enough to find affordable housing, and affordable pet-friendly housing is even harder to secure,” he wrote. “Many apartment buildings ban certain breeds or dogs over a certain weight.”

In addition to pricey housing, the cost of pet food has surged by 25 percent since 2020, with over 90 percent of dog owners reporting financial stress over the price of pet ownership. Per Forbes, two-thirds of pet owners now express concerns about their ability to afford emergency veterinary bills due to inflation.

This is indeed a crisis, a byproduct of outrageous consumer costs. No healthy dog should have to be abandoned, forced into an overstuffed shelter, and euthanized. Tragically, in today’s floundering economy, that is exactly what is happening.

To push back against the federal government’s egregious spending habits, add your name to the Convention of States petition below.

;coalition_id:;anedot_url:}|#