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VERIFY: Pets adopted during height of pandemic are not increasingly being surrendered to shelters

Petco said in a statement animals adopted during the pandemic are not being surrendered to shelters in record numbers.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It's a claim you may have seen on the Internet or on social media. Reports are circulating on the Internet and on social media of people who adopted pets during the height of the pandemic now surrendering them to shelters.

The Jacksonville Humane Society reached out to On Your Side's Dawn White to clear up confusion. 

Those at the shelter say based on data from Duval County and across the nation, that claim is false. They're not seeing more animals returned to the shelter. 

“Here in the trenches, we know that it’s not true. We know that more people are asking for help than before, and they want to keep their pets. They’re coming to us saying, ‘I love my cat. I love my dog. I don’t want to give them up, versus, ‘I don’t care about this animal anymore,’” said Lindsay Layendecker, assistant development director at the Jacksonville Humane Society. 

Lindsay Layendecker with the Jacksonville Humane Society says whether it's someone's cat or dog, people who adopted pets during the COVID-19 pandemic aren't returning them in higher numbers than usual but instead are looking for services so they can bridge the gap financially. 

Our pet food bank is more popular than ever, so people are seeking food for their pets so they can keep their pets in their homes and additionally veterinary care is a very big request, access to low-cost veterinary care," Layendecker said.

The number of owner surrenders at the Jacksonville Humane Society for the first four months of 2021 are only slightly up from the same time period in 2020, with a 2% increase. Owner surrenders are down 4% from 2019 and down 2% from 2018.

Data from Jacksonville's Animal Care and Protective Services shows from January through April 2021, owner surrenders were up 3% from the same time period in 2020, down 4% from 2019, and up 1% from 2018.

“I would never consider doing that, especially having two other pets already," Savanna Livingston said. 

Savanna Livingston adopted seven-month-old Riley, a German Shepherd, during the pandemic. 

“Now that things are kind of going back to normal, I think it’s going to be fun to get her out and about to places that we weren’t able to go to before, so as things are slowly starting to open up, taking her out to different dog parks, different restaurants, hanging out with her there, and getting her used to meeting everything and everyone I think will be kind of fun," Livingston said.

“The pandemic has been difficult for everyone, and pets provide companionship, they provide joy, they provide unconditional love, and everyone should have access to that," Layendecker said.

Nationally, Petco's non-profit organization released a statement saying its partners aren't seeing more pandemic pets returned to shelters.

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