DENVER — More and more people are giving up their dogs and cats and the animals are nearly overwhelming Denver's safety net shelter -- in part because other shelters won't take them, the director of Denver Animal Protection said.
The number of dogs and cats surrendered by owners to the Denver Animal Shelter this year is more than double pre-pandemic levels, Melanie Sobel said. She said the increasing cost of food and vet bills are contributing factors.
"It's hard to find affordable housing, let alone housing that allows animals that's affordable," she said.
In other cases, she said dogs adopted during the pandemic didn't get enough socialization and now behave badly -- leading their owners to give them up.
"They're here asking for help and the last thing we want to do is turn them away," Sobel said.
However other shelters, she said, have started saying no more often. Aurora's municipal shelter, for example, won't take any more owner-surrendered dogs. Denver picks up some of the slack.
"We're doing everything we possibly can to diminish the euthanasia numbers," Sobel said. But she said the number of dogs and cats the Denver shelter has had to put down is up too -- nearly double the pre-pandemic levels as well.
"It's very hard. It's very hard on the staff too," she said.
To try to keep animals healthy, she said staff and volunteers bring them outside and socialize them. That helps sustain them in the shelter longer and makes them better candidates for adoption.
The shelter said people probably already know how to help -- they need financial donations, people to volunteer and people to adopt.
The Denver Animal Shelter is also trying to get ahead of the next surge in pets by hiring a social worker to connect pet owners with resources before they get into a situation where they can't care for their animals.
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