New York animal shelters are overwhelmed: The reasons why NYC residents are giving up their pets

Rising costs across the United States is having one particularly sad effect on society: overwhelmed animal shelters due to unfortunate owners who cannot afford to keep them.

Struggling homes are being forced to say goodbye to their much-loved animals across New York and are giving them away to shelters, which are now at breaking point, with The New York Times reporting that “most people who bring in cats, dogs and other pets will be turned away.”

“ We can’t adopt our way out,” Katy Hansen of Animal Care Centers of New York City told the outlet as, in their words, a”s the earsplitting sound of barking seemed to echo off the walls": “I mean, unless we did a thousand adoptions this weekend, but that’s pretty unrealistic. So what is it that we can do? I don’t know. I think everyone’s trying to figure it out.” She also added that a large majority of the people giving their pets up for adoption were being thrown out of their homes and into shelters that do not allow pets.

‘They come in, they’re crying. I think it’s just people are broke’

“Not everybody is surrendering their pet because they just don’t have time,” she said. “There’s a lot of people that are just, like, really struggling. And it’s sad. You know, they come in, they’re crying. I think it’s just people are broke,” she lamented. “The wealth gap is hitting hard.”

The Guardian reported that in 2023, a total of around 690,000 dogs and cats were euthanised in shelters across the US, with demand simply too much for the workers. The report, which takes a deep dive on the issues facing shelters, says that “workers are at the frontlines of this crisis... [working] where dogs bark frenziedly through rusting fences and cats coil, terrified, in small metal cages.”

CBS also delved into the matter, noting that Donald Trump’s increasing crackdown on immigration is another reason behind the crisis: “local shelters and rescues are feeling the impacts of recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, with an increasing number of surrendered pets overwhelming their kennels."

They cite the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control, who say that they have “seen an increase in surrendered pets since the immigration raids began last month.”

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