Animal shelters are seeing an increased demand for pet adoptions

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- When the coronavirus pandemic first hit and stay at home orders were put in place, many animal shelters are seeing a high demand for pet adoptions and fostering.

“We had a lot more adoptions than we normally do, and a lot of people who were interested in fostering at one point we actually had to start turning away people who were interested in fostering because we just didn’t have enough animals to go around,” Outreach Coordinator for the Human Society of St. Joseph County, Bailey Williams said.

At the humane society of St. Joseph County, outreach coordinator Bailey Williams said they had about 70 adoptions a month in May and June. The humane society had 500 cats in the shelter around this time last year, now they have a total of 263 animals in the shelter, this includes both cats and dogs, and 45 animals in foster care.

For Pet Refuge, a volunteer animal shelter in South Bend, Vice President Nancy Whiteman said they were down to five dogs at the shelter during the spike something she’s never seen before.

They’ve also seen zero return rates on adopted animals that's something she credits to the pandemic.

“We do a very good vetting process upfront when the people adopt so that we’re pretty sure that these aren’t the kind of people that are going to do that,” Whiteman said.

Both animal shelters have said they’ve seen a steady adoption rate recently.