Animal shelters across Tri-State full; pandemic contributing to overcrowding
CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Animal shelters across the Tri-State are at critical capacity levels. More and more people are finding abandoned, lost and abused animals, and there’s not always a place to turn when kennels are full.
Cincinnati Animal CARE has declared Code Red. They have been over capacity since May 18, and they’ve taken in 188 animals since last Friday alone. Cincinnati Animal CARE has a few theories on why more animals are coming through their doors.
It’s an all too common, yet heartbreaking, scenario as of late: animals left abandoned on the streets.
“[A cat and her kitten] were out there and they looked pathetic and just miserable. They needed some care,” said Cameron Adams.
Cameron and his wife Laura rescued the mother cat and her baby and kept the pair at their home because finding a safe place for them to go was nearly impossible.
“It was hard. It was like nine different places we called, and nobody would take them,” said Laura.
One place did finally answer their call for help: Cincinnati Animal Care. But that’s not to say they don’t already have their hands and kennels full.
“We’ve declared what we call a Code Red, which means we have 10 or fewer open kennels,” said Ray Anderson, the media and community relations manager for Cincinnati Animal CARE.
Anderson said sometimes they are at negative 30 kennels, stretching resources to help more animals. While they can’t ask the dog or cat how they ended up on the streets, the influx of animals needing help during the pandemic has left them with a few theories.
“Is it necessarily related to the eviction moratorium ending? Or various employment issues happening or employment assistance running out? It could be,” said Anderson.
When people freely surrender their animals, the number one reason the shelter hears is there is a lack of affordable, pet-friendly housing, so the only option is to give up their pet. And while the pandemic lingers and continues to shift and uproot peoples’ lives, the shelter is bracing for more animals heading their way.
“Our biggest fear here is that evictions increase, and that’s going to mean more animals coming in and more people need help,” said Anderson.
Cincinnati Animal CARE is waiving their adoption fees on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. They are hoping to clear out the shelter, and they say promotions like waived adoption fees provide more successful adoptions that stay in homes longer than animals adopted traditionally.
The shelter said the biggest pandemic myth is that people adopted pets at the start of the pandemic and don’t want them anymore because they have to go back to work. They said that is not true. In fact, their return rate is very low -- lower than the national average.
