A small car isn’t much space for four dogs, a cat and a human to share. But when a Las Vegas woman who had fallen behind on rent after losing her business during the COVID-19 pandemic was evicted recently, she had no option but to move herself and her animal companions into her vehicle. In Spokane, Washington, a man who had been evicted from his home also had to sleep in his car with his canine companion. But when it became too hot to leave his dog in the car while he went to work, his only humane option was to surrender the dog to an animal shelter.
Scenarios like these are becoming alarmingly common as eviction moratoriums end and many property owners are simultaneously raising rent by hundreds of dollars a month. Experts warn that as many as 8 million more animals may soon be at risk of homelessness as their guardians face eviction in the coming months. This number is on top of the 70 million dogs and cats who are already homeless on any given day in the U.S.
It’s vital that these animals have somewhere safe to go, yet many animal shelters are turning away cats and dogs in their hour of greatest need. They’re telling residents — whose taxes fund shelters — “Sorry, we’re full,” and closing their doors. Some are drastically reducing their hours or requiring people to make appointments, wait for months or pay high fees to surrender an animal. Some even encourage people to leave homeless animals on the streets, as one large shelter in Texas recently did.
These are all part of some shelters’ misguided attempts to make their “save rates” seem appealing to donors and the public by taking in fewer animals. But facilities that use these harmful tactics deny help to the animals who need it most.
For many people who can no longer care for their animals, shelters are the last resort. When even shelters won’t help, animals suffer. Rejected animals may end up (or remain) on the streets, where they struggle to survive and die painfully after succumbing to contagious diseases, untreated broken bones, raging infections, extreme weather and attacks by other animals or cruel humans. Other animals who are turned away by shelters are abused, neglected or cruelly killed by people who are desperate to “get rid” of them.
PETA’s files are overflowing with such reports. After a shelter in Florida reportedly turned away a couple trying to surrender a 6-week-old kitten, they left him in the shelter’s parking lot, where a vehicle ran him over. Hours later, the kitten was found with severe injuries, including a crushed skull. Days later, he died.
In rural Michigan, three dogs were found dead on a dirt road and a fourth was injured after they were apparently hit by a car. Authorities tracked down a man who confessed to dumping the dogs after they had been turned away by no fewer than three animal shelters.
A woman in Des Moines, Iowa, was charged with animal torture after she allegedly stabbed her cat multiple times and tried to drown the animal. The woman reportedly tried to kill the cat because “she didn’t want to care for [the animal] anymore and she did not believe that any shelter would take the cat.”
Shelters that turn away animals and implement other restrictions often do so in an attempt to avoid euthanasia. But are these cruel fates really worse than a painless end? And can a facility be considered a “shelter” at all if it refuses to provide animals in desperate need with a safe haven?
These are challenging times for everyone, and cats and dogs are especially vulnerable when their guardians’ housing, finances, health or other circumstances change. Animals in crisis must be able to count on shelters to live up to their name and keep their doors open to all.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Teresa Chagrin is the manager of animal care and control issues in the Cruelty Investigations Department at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.
