Animals Shelters Seeing Large Drop In Adoptions Compared To 2020

Tulsa SPCA said it's seeing fewer adoptions compared to this time last year. The shelter currently has around 40 animals ready to find their new home, even if it's a temporary place.

"You know just getting them out of the shelter and really just kind of you know bringing them into that home experience," said Alyssa Smythe. She took care of two dogs during the pandemic. Smythe is one of the hundreds who helped clear Tulsa SPCA animal shelter during the pandemic. "That was allowing us to keep up those numbers for the year. As you can see from last year, we still had more in the middle of a pandemic than we've got now," said Lauren Holder.

Holder is the Animal Connections Manager for Tulsa SPCA. She said while first-time fostering numbers increased during the pandemic, that number is falling off and now they're seeing a different impact from the pandemic. "So we're actually seeing a huge increase in owners surrenders. It's up 27 percent from last year and our adoptions have actually decreased 20 percent," said Holder.

She said with fewer people working from home now, they're seeing a decrease in people wanting to take in animals temporarily, but they hope that trend changes. Smythe said spending time with the animals at the shelter makes her want to open her home again to foster another animal. "To know that for every animal that anyone of us fosters it opens up space for another animal to come in and be rescued," said Smythe.

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