CHICAGO – Animal shelters have been emptying since the beginning of the mandatory stay-at home-order that has been in effect since March 21 in Illinois. Companionship plays an important role in coping with loneliness and boredom, especially at this moment with people being asked to stay at home.

Marin Scott, a DePaul University student, and her boyfriend adopted a nine-month-old kitten – Murphy - around two weeks after the stay-at-home order began. They could finally adopt a cat which they’ve always hoped to do.

“My boyfriend and I have always been wanting to get a cat, but with our busy schedules we couldn’t justify not being at home with a kitten,” said Scott. “So when we were forced to stay at home, we thought that this would be the perfect time to bond with him and make sure that he was well-adjusted to our lifestyle.”

Animal shelters are hoping to see people adopt animals. But adoption is not the only reason for animal shelters being empty. Transferring, returning, and pet intake are additional factors for the emptiness of animal shelters.

After the stay-at-home order was issued, more than 1,000 animals have been adopted from Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC), a government-based animal shelter in Chicago, with more than 850 transfers, 34 adoptions, and 125 returned to their owners.

Jenny Schlueter, assistant to the director of public information officer at CACC, explained that there are more people coming in to adopt a pet than they expected.

“During the pandemic, my first thought was nobody is going to adopt an animal, [as] they might be scared and stay at home,” said Schlueter. “To say they are doing it [adopting] more than usual, I would say no. But to say they are doing it a lot more than you’d expect during the pandemic, I’d say that is accurate.”

Since April 5, the CACC has run out of adoptable animals. After holding a fee-waived adoption weekend on March 14 and 15, before the stay-at-home order was mandated, more than 100 animals were adopted.

The weekend after the order was issued only 225 animals remained at the shelter where normally the figure would be more than 300. By April 2, only 60 animals still called the CACC shelter their home..

(Source: CACC / Chart made by Nicole Shih.)

PAWS Chicago, another private animal shelter in the Chicago area, has announced that since March 22 they have received over 6,500 adoption applications, with an average of 65 adoptions per week. They have taken many measures to ensure that all animals in the shelter have been taken care of properly, while maintaining the health and safety of the public, staff, and volunteers as well.

“Vulnerable animals need us more now than ever. We are often their last chance,” said Julia Poukatch, PAWS Chicago communications associate. “During this crisis, PAWS Chicago never closed its doors to pets in need. In fact, [we] expanded services to support the community during COVID-19.”

To support the needs of those animals and the community, PAWS Chicago has developed six new methods of adapting the adoption process to the COVID-19 outbreak. These methods include launching a virtual adoption process, establishing a mobile Pet Food Pantry, offering virtual dog training classes.

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Scott expressed that she and her boyfriend will never give their kitten away nor rehoming him after the order is lifted.

“[Me and my boyfriend] have our roommate scheduled to catsit for a week when we both go visit my family in Michigan,” Scott said. “We have a pet that we love, and we’re training him to work within our lifestyle [even] after quarantine is over.”

CACC and PAWS work together - as they always do - to care for animals during the coronavirus outbreak. Though they work differently in animal care with PAWS focusing on adoptions while the CACC obtains the animals, both hold the same goal; they want to make sure that animals are taken good care of and are able to get a new home no matter when the quarantine is over.

PAWS Chicago expressed that thankfully they haven’t seen people turning their pets back to the shelter. CACC also hopes that people continue to be interested in fostering and adopting shelter animals and more importantly, they will be more willing to keep their pets and work through any issues after the stay-at-home order is lifted. However along with the economic downturn, pet abandonment could still be a huge potential risk.

Similarly to the increase in adoptions, and later abandonment, of dalmatians after the 1996 release of the hit Disney film “101 Dalmatians,” animal shelters had reported great increases of unwanted dalmatians after the movie came out, according to a news report from the New York Times.

Animal returns post-COVID could be on the horizon

PAWS Chicago has launched a Crisis Care Foster Initiative, an alternative support to those who are temporarily unable to take care of their pets or have been directly affected by COVID-19. People who are eligible to apply include frontline healthcare workers working around the clock, patients recovering from the virus, and those experiencing financial hardship.

“Our objective is to place all crisis care pets in a loving, temporary foster home for up to 60 days or until their owners can get back on their feet,” Poukatch said.

Alongside the help from the Chicagoland animal welfare community, such as the Anti-Cruelty Society, CACC shows confidence in assisting people with a number of resources including food, veterinary care, and training to enable pet guardians to more easily care for their companion animals.

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