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Animal shelters are struggling nationwide, and reporter Sammy Lindell says it’s due to a multitude of factors, some being disturbing, others just being heartbreaking.
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There are 17 million homeless animals in the United States
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(Sammy)
Dee Schaefer is the education director of the Central New York SPCA. She says that animal shelters on a national scale are just surviving, and it’s mostly due to the effects of COVID-19.
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If you look at animal care in general, any of the animal-related industries, we are all in crisis right now.
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Dee says in lockdown, people often make irrational decisions in deciding whether to get a pet.
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I think they made a lot of knee-jerk reactions and thought I need somebody to keep me company in my apartment.
I think they got these as entertainment for their children who are also home, and now they don’t have time for them or they didn’t realize what they were getting.
(Sammy)
But with impulse decision making, came lots of pet surrenders.
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People need to realize that, you know, when they adopt that cute little cuddly kitten, in six months it’s a full-grown
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But pets coming back to the shelter aren’t the only issue SPCA is facing.
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We have lost five kennel staff in the last year…so we’re down five kennel staff, we have three people today taking care of over 2 hundred animals.
(Sammy)
And even with a lack of staff over the pandemic, the shelter was faced with even more issues.
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And during the height of the pandemic, we couldn’t get the medication we needed to spay and neuter our animals.
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But no matter what, Dee’s mission is to give the animals she takes care of a forever home.
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When our animals go home, we want them to go home for good.
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And that’s why Dee is in schools educating kids about the shelter.
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Now that I am back in schools, I talk to kids about what it takes to own an animal. If your mom and dad say no, it’s because they know best.
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And Dee thinks it’s vital for shelters to make it clear what it’s really like owning a pet.
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I think all shelters should have an education program.
Dee Dee: If you walk through here and you see empty cages, and we have to tell people I’m sorry we can’t take your animal, it’s because we might have 50 cats coming in at the end of the week. Or in the case of October 20-20, one hundred two bunnies from one residence.
Cee Cee: It’s no joke
Dee Dee: Yeah that was not a joke, this entire shelter was rabbits.
(Sammy)
And the other woman you heard was Cee Cee Andrew, the tiny critters specialist. She was on that case in October of 2020.
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Cee Cee: It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and if I ever see it again, it’d be too soon. But I would absolutely go do it again because I helped save one hundred two lives that day.
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Dee says hoarding is a problem that many shelters face. They can get hundreds of animals at once with few people to take care of them. It happens more often than you may realize.
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In October of 2018, one hundred 12 cats from one residence.
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Dee takes care of lots of pets herself but says that there is a difference between being a pet owner and being a pet hoarder.
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Am I a hoarder? No. Because my animals are all vetted, they’re taken care of, they’re healthy. I don’t put them in a freezer when they die and say they’re sleeping…and that’s…that’s what they do.
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And with recent supply chain issues, getting dog food has been hard for not only shelters but all pet owners.
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We ordered our adult dog food last week, our adult dog food didn’t come because they have nothing. So we had to put a plea out to the public hey if you can find this in the pet stores would you be willing to donate to us. We have over 50 dogs.
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Dee says all of these struggles have taken a toll on her mental health.
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I have been in animal welfare for 23 years, I’ve never been this ready to leave. And it’s just…it’s just the stress it just is nonstop. A lot of tears, a lot of tears these past couple of years.
(Sammy)
And some of the most horrifying stories have been the most recent rescues.
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We’ve gotten a lot of animals the last couple of weeks where we’ve walked into the house and the people have been dead.
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Though the job is burning the staff out, Dee takes pride in the success stories the shelter has seen. Remember the hoarding case of the cats? They’re safe and sound at the shelter.
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To see them have this room, that number of litter boxes from where they were is pretty amazing. It was in a trailer and the floors were rotting out, and it was a mess. It was a mess.
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Out of one of these hoarding stories came a lifelong companion for Dee, and her name is Pinky the Chihuahua.
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When the officers got to her house she had two hundred dogs, two hundred, Pinky was one of those dogs. And I might cry I have trouble with this one. Pinky was adopted not long after that case, and the man that adopted her died. And at 15 years old they brought this dog back and dumped her on the counter.
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Some stories like this have a happy ending–but most do not.
Many animal shelters are desperately in need of volunteers to help out, and they need people more now than ever. And hopefully, pets like Pinky will find owners willing to provide what they need the most– (Dogs Barking) a forever home. I’m Sammy Lindell.
