The video story was reported and produced by Zheming Zhang. Show voiceover by Demi Asensio.
Animal shelters such as the Humane Society of Tampa Bay have worked tirelessly to rescue and take care of stray animals every day.
Fortunately, “pandemic puppies” became popular as animal shelters nationwide experienced a surge in pet adoptions last year from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A survey by Rover.com found that more than a third of Americans got a pet last year, and most adopted from a nonprofit or rescue group.
Humane Society of Tampa Bay Volunteer Manager Lisa Novorska said that the coronavirus helped increase the adoptions for a while.
“So when everybody was at home, we actually had lines almost every day outside the shelter because I think people did not have much else going on,” said Novorska.
Florida shelters rescue about 400,000 animals a year. Stray animals that end up at the Humane Society come from a variety of places.
“When animals arrive, they sometimes have been picked up literally off the street. It could be a stray, it could be what we call an owner’s surrender,” said Novorska.
Novorska added that an owner’s surrender occurs when people turn over their pet to an animal shelter due to circumstances like moving into an apartment that doesn’t allow pets and a change in pet ownership due to a death of a relative.
Stray animals can also be taken to a shelter when there is a natural disaster or when owners fail to spay or neuter their pets.
“We also have circumstances where there might be, you know, a litter of puppies let’s say and they didn’t have the pet spayed or neutered. The animal has puppies and they didn’t want to keep all the puppies,” said Novorska.
Although there are still strays that need to be adopted, euthanasia for dogs and cats has dropped since 2013. Euthanasia for dogs dropped 71%, and for cats it dropped 69%.
“The good part about our shelter is we are a no-kill-for-space shelter,” said Novorska. “So basically what that means is that when animals come to us, as long as they are healthy and able to be adopted, we will hang on to them for as long as they need to stay here.”
If you are interested in helping to take care of stray animals, you can join the Humane Society’s volunteer program by visiting its website.
