For some time, pets have been thought to help ease the anxiety, stress and loneliness of their owners.
So, it’s no surprise that in the current state of the world, where people are forced to keep others at a six-foot distance and the uncertainty of the future is weighing heavily, that people would turn to furry friends to keep them company and bring some joy into their homes.
There have been news reports of shelters emptying across the country as people add a four-legged member to their families. Shelters across the Jackson metro are also experiencing upticks in adoption and fostering rates.
While the increase in adoptions and willing foster families is something they are excited about, many Jackson area shelter operators are afraid of what could happen when things begin to return to normal.
Elizabeth Jackson, Director of the Animal Rescue Fund of Mississippi (ARF), said they are experiencing an increase in adoptions and fostering. However, donations to ARF have dried up.
“We have had a serious decrease in donations,” Jackson said. “About 50 percent of our monthly donations have stopped. We still have to take care of our animals.”
They were also forced to cancel their annual fundraiser, which makes up much of their budget.
As the state’s largest no-kill organization, Jackson said they have had a great response from people who want to adopt and foster pets, even though the shelter-in-place order temporarily halted both.
“At that point, we had no animals leaving,” Jackson said of the beginning of April. At that time, they did take in some animals that were left outside their gates while they were closed to guests.
Recently, they were able to loosen some of those restrictions as long as safe practices are in place, such as taking temperatures, disinfecting surfaces and ensuring that workers and guests are wearing masks and gloves.
Now, transports and meet-and-greets are allowed again, as long as these procedures are followed.
“Everybody is having to work from home and thinking about wanting to add a pet into their lives,” Jackson said. “We have had a slight uptick in adoptions, but a bigger uptick in fostering.”
While she is a bit concerned about recently adopted pets being returned to shelters once people begin to return to work and businesses begin to reopen this week, Jackson said they do not allow same day adoptions for this reason.
Taking more time to finalize an adoption is meant to give those who are thinking of adopting the chance to really think it over and understand the commitment they are making.
Jackson said the increase of willing foster families has helped them tremendously, as foster families are harder to come by. But, extra time at home while many were social distancing allowed for the perfect conditions for volunteers to step up.
“Fosters are the lifeblood of rescue,” Jackson said.
At Webster Animal Shelter in Madison, Director Vicki Currie said they have also seen an uptick in adoptions since the coronavirus pandemic hit Mississippi.
“On the front end, it’s been good,” Currie said. “With people being home, we’ve had a lot of adoptions. People have been looking for cats and kittens.”
Webster Animal Shelter staff have been allowing adoptions by appointment from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, which allows for approximately 10 visits per day. Only four people are allowed to come in at a time.
Currie is also concerned about the possible influx of returns after things begin to return to normal.
“In our adoption contract, it is written up that if they find that they can’t care for the animal it has to come back here,” Currie said.
When a person comes in to adopt, she said they also discuss the person’s setup for the pet, if the animal will be an inside or outside pet, what their potty training plan will be. They also require proof of approval from the potential adopter’s landlord.
“We only do fostering to adopt, will allow fostering up to two weeks,” Currie said. If things aren’t working out during that time frame, Webster will take them back, no questions asked.
“The downside is that as soon as a lot of this is over and things return to normal, I feel like there’s probably going to be a lot of, ‘We don’t have time,’” Currie said.
While she says Webster is one of the smaller shelters in the state of Mississippi, they have adopted out at least half of their inventory, including adult dogs, cats and kittens.
For a while, they were completely out of kittens.
Like ARF, Webster is also experiencing a decrease in monetary donations. However, the amount of donated food, towels and newspapers has dramatically increased over the past few weeks.
As the state continues to slowly reopen, local shelters hope their financial support returns and that people continue to return to add furry friends to their families.