Kaine is a big, happy dog looking for a home. But lately he’s spending a lot of time at the office.
Pet shelters across the United States are stretched thin due to the rising cost of living, so the 7-year-old animal is staying in the office of a Mohawk Hudson Humane Society employee while she waits to be adopted.
The shelter near Albany, New York, is “beyond overwhelmed,” said CEO Ashley Jeffrey Bouck. That’s why Kaine—with her cage, bed, and chew toys—must share the space with an employee, a desk, and filing cabinets.
“He’s one of our ‘office adopters,’ that’s what we call them,” Bouck said on a recent visit to Kaine’s office. “They’re here all day and all night. They don’t go to a kennel because we don’t have kennels to send them to.”
The number of animals arriving at shelters began to increase in 2021 after a decline due to the pandemic. Adoptions are not keeping pace with the intake of pets — especially large dogs like Kaine — creating a snowball phenomenon in many shelters. Shelter Animals Count, a national database of shelter statistics, estimates that the shelter population will increase by 250,000 animals in 2023.
Shelter operators say they are in crisis trying to reduce the population.
Some attribute the problem to owners abandoning “pandemic puppies” acquired during COVID-19 quarantines. But animal protectors and shelter operators say evidence points to economic factors such as rising costs and housing insecurity.
“The economy has gotten really tough for a lot of families,” said Kim Alboum of the Bissell Pet Foundation, a national animal welfare organization. “And with the housing crisis, people lose their homes and are forced to reduce their expenses or move in with others. And this spells disaster for people who have large dogs.”
Overcrowded shelters have more problems with dogs than cats, protectors say. Mohawk Hudson, for example, has many pit bulls, mastiffs, and Italian mastiffs.
Some people no longer have enough resources to keep their pets, especially with the rising cost of veterinary services. Animal protectors say the shortage of veterinarians exacerbates the problem by reducing access to care.
