Facing an unusually large pet population, the two major animal shelters in Bartholomew County are urging residents to consider alternatives to abandoning their pet at their facilities.
“We are bursting at the seams,” said Columbus Animal Care Services (ACS) General Manager Nicohl Birdwell Goodin. “It’s easily the fullest our shelter has been since I arrived here nine years ago.”
Both Birdwell Goodin and Bartholomew County Humane Society shelter director Kirsten VantWoud say their organizations can help make maintaining a dog or cat more affordable.
“Kirsten and I are both trying to get the word out that if food is the issue for people giving up their animals, abandoning them is not necessary,” Birdwell-Goodin said. “We both have pet food pantry options.”
Growth in the shelter population is seasonal. This is the time of year that animal shelters across the country reach their peak populations because some pets flee a home after becoming terrified by exploding fireworks during the Independence Day holiday.
But several other factors are at play that are pushing up population numbers above normal levels for early July.
For example, several low-cost spay and neuter clinics suspended or scaled back operations in both 2020 and part of 2021 because of the pre-vaccine risk of COVID-19. As a result, there has been a significant increase in the domestic animal population.
In addition, several Bartholomew County residents obtained pets while working online from home during the pandemic. But after being called back to their traditional worksite, some pet owners discovered they no longer had the time to properly care for their animals, Birdwell-Goodin said.
As one might suspect, inflation has become a growing factor resulting in more homeless or sheltered animals, VantWoud said. When she was appointed as shelter manager for the Humane Society in 2020, VantWoud said she was amazed how quickly lost animals are reunited with their owners. In fact, the majority of captured pets brought into the shelter were returned to their owner that year. The city requires animals to be microchipped, so if an animal frequently runs away, ACS staff are able to reunite them with their owners, sometimes without even having to bring the pet to the shelter on Arnold St., Birdwell-Goodin said.
But last spring, it appeared that a number of people were facing enough of a financial struggle that when the dog or cat went missing, the owner made no effort to reclaim the animal, VantWoud said.
“It was either that, or the pet was intentionally dumped,” she added.
One surprising fact is that it’s not unusual for a person to walk into a recently vacated apartment or house to find an abandoned pet who was not allowed to move into the new residence, Birdwell-Goodin said.
While many families travel on vacation this time of year, their pet sitter is often not familiar with the animal’s behavior and will accidentally allow the dog or cat to escape, the ACS director said.
The number of people who drive their pets to a faraway location to dump them in the wild has decreased, she said, but it still takes place occasionally, she added.
Just like the loud explosions of fireworks, a full animal shelter can cause both felines and canines to become stressed out, which is especially bad when families and individuals are considering them for adoption, VantWoud said.
The cats often don’t want to interact with humans while the dogs become reactive and bark excessively.
“It just complicates everything,” VantWoud said. “It would be nice to get some of these kittens in foster care because it gets them well socialized and the foster family assists with the physical care. Unfortunately, the Bartholomew County Humane Society is already using all of its available foster homes for felines, she said.
Options might include finding a friend, relative or neighbor who likes the dog or cat, and would consider taking care of the animal either temporarily or permanently.
Both animal shelters anticipate their pet populations will remain high until the numbers begin to gradually drop in October and remain manageable until the spring.
