BOSTON — New Englanders love their pets. Every spring, local animal shelters are crowded with potential pet owners looking to make a connection with an irresistible dog or cat.
But COVID-19 has changed everything.
Pet adoptions are mostly suspended as humans shelter in their own homes and many shelters are empty.
A lot of Massachusetts dogs previously offered for adoption are now living in foster homes where they are waiting out COVID-19 before they can move onto their forever homes.
The homeless dogs that fill Massachusetts animal shelters mostly come from southern states, where spay and neuter regulations are more relaxed, and the supply of adoptable dogs and puppies are plentiful.
Now that Massachusetts pet adoptions are on hold, southern rescue dogs are not journeying North and there’s concern that this could lead to a population explosion of southern dogs.
Elizabeth Jefferis, the Executive Director of Hopkinton’s Baypath Humane Society said she is already hearing about how the adoption ban is affecting southern dogs.
“One of our partners outside of Houston said the shelters are closed, even the animal control officers are only dealing with injured animals. They are seeing a resurgence of dogs, running, just turned out loose,” Jefferis said.
At the Animal Rescue League of Boston, the most recent shipment of southern dogs arrived in February.
With COVID-19 gripping the country, there is no telling when ALRB will receive another shipment of dogs from its partner in North Carolina, Florida, and Puerto Rico.
“Everything has shifted. And my assumption is that in the southern states, they are no longer accepting animals off of the streets to their facilities. So they are decreasing the intakes that they have,“ ALRB Animal Welfare VP Edward Schettino said.
All of this is leading to concerns that the population of homeless southern dogs might overwhelm the system, once the COVID-19 restrictions are finally lifted.
“There are so many people down there doing great spay-neuter and education work,” Jefferis said. “And it’s going to backslide. There will be more animals out there mating, there will be more animals, once the shelters open up again, they will be overrun.”
At the Animal Rescue League, VP Schettino predicts once the COVID-19 crisis is over, the shelters will be filled with people, and animals looking for homes.
“I know whenever this lifts, we are going to have to be full force in working with our partner organizations in the South, working with our local communities, and really making up for lost time,” Schettino said.
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