- Tallahassee Animal Services is facing a surge in pet surrenders and strays exceeding the number seen in the past three years.
- Reasons for the increase include economic pressures, holiday challenges, and a lack of commitment from some pet owners.
- Watch the video to see how you can help.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A pet is a gift many people may have gotten in the past few weeks.
Our neighborhood animal service facility says it comes with responsibilities some people aren't prepared for. It's why they must stay prepared to both accept and adopt out pets to responsible pet owners.
During the shelter's Wednesday walk-through of adoptable pets we met Orzo and Okra, two puppies at the shelter, set to be adopted from Tallahassee Animal Services in the next two weeks.
It was one of the shelter's hundreds of success stories.
Going into the new year, it has definitely yielded just as many animals as we're seeing in 2023," Erika Leckington, Tallahassee Animal Services Director. "So we are seeing an increase in the number of animals coming through our doors."
The shelter takes in more pets than it gets out.
"We are seeing more animals come in than we've seen in the last three years," Leckington said.
According to the City of Tallahassee, more than 1,000 pets were surrendered by their owners to Tallahassee Animal Services in 2023. This number is likely to be higher once the total 2023 counts are released.
"We see a lot more animals coming in, in April, May, June than we do see other parts of the year," Leckington said.
Another trend is emerging this year though.
"Typically in December, and in January, we see lower intake numbers, but we're not seeing those so far this year," Leckington said. "Because we see a lot of people that can't afford to board their animal for the holiday, or they have made it no longer a priority to keep that animal in the home. Or they're just having hard times around the holidays with inflation and everything else going on."
For those who are keeping their pets, there are things you should be immediately doing for them.
"It's a family pet, you want to keep it for as long as you can forever, their forever home,"Debbie Kershaw from Animal Aid Spay and Neuter Center in Tallahassee said. "You know, you want to make sure you're ready for a pet, veterinarian checks, make sure you have good food, food is important good food, good bedding."
She said there is also a community responsibility pet owners have.
"Spaying and neutering is so important," Kershaw said. "We have so many pets that are in need of homes, and it's good for their health and their well-being and they just make better pets when they're spayed or neutered."
Taxpayers fund the Tallahassee Animal Services facility and the cost to run it continues to rise each year with more animals coming in.
For each pet coming in, there's a price tag attached.
"We've seen a lot of changes," Leckington said. "And as we've seen a lot of changes in our immediate economy. We've also seen the cost of running our animal shelter go up."
For each pet leaving there's a forever home hopefully in their future.
The shelter is currently at 100% capacity for its dogs and has some remaining room for cats, but they're reaching their cap.
The shelters is asking for more volunteers and adoptions from those who are able.
