Tough Times For Cat And Dog Adoptions

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I always have my eye out for dog and cat articles in newspaper, magazines, or on the internet. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a reoccurring theme lately and that is that Animal Shelters across the country are in the middle of a crisis. Animal shelters have record numbers of cats and dogs and they are having difficult time getting these animals adopted.

Tough Time For Cat And Dog Adoptions

A little over a month ago I came across an article in our local paper the Orange County Register. The article was titled “County animal shelters facing a cat crisis” and talks about the rising number of dogs and cats in shelters. The main cause of these rising number appears to be a directly related to the poor economy. “Home foreclosures and evictions forced heartbroken pet owners to relinquish their animals to the Irvine Animal Care Center, and the cats and dogs began to multiply.”

The Irvine Animal Care Center is the same facility that held the Orange County Super Pet Aoption Event a few months ago. After the event we also talked about 3 Interesting Animal Shelter Facts. I later found out that the Super Adoption event found homes for nearly 300 animals that day, but we are still in the middle of a cat and dog adoption crisis.

Animals Shelters At Capacity

As reported by the article in the OC Register there are currently 260 cats available for adoption and nearly 100 dogs about double the normal numbers.

The Irvine Animal Shelter will normally have space for all relinquished dogs and cats, but for the first time in shelter history, the shelter has been forced to turn away owner relinquished cats and dogs are being turned away intermittently depending if spaces open up.

“We’ve got kittens that are growing into juveniles and even adults at the shelter. That’s unheard of usually, because kittens are always the first to get adopted.”

Animal Shelter Numbers

• 399 – Animals in the Irvine Animal Care Center: 268 cats, 92 dogs, and 39 rabbits
• 600 – Number of cats and dos in the OC Animal Shelter: 300 dogs, 300 cats
• 115 – Animals in the San Clemente-Dana Point Animal Shelter: 57 cats, 38 dogs, 20 rabbits
• 84 – Animals in the Mission Viejo Animal Shelter: 44 cats, 33 dogs, 7 rabbits
• 77 – Animals in the Orange County Humane Society: 40 cats, 33 dogs

Cat And Dog Adoptions In Your Future

Have you been thinking about adopting that cat or dog? The first thing I’d have to say is make sure you’re stable economically before taken on a new pet in the family. However, if you have been carefully considering that cat or dog adoption now might be a good time to help out your local shelter by adopting a cat or dog.

Of course pet adoption is not the only way you can help out your local shelter. We’ve been lucky enough to help local shelters and rescues by fostering dogs and puppies. You can also help out by volunteering at your local shelter as a dog walker, cleaning kennels…etc.

If you are interested in volunteering please contact one of your local shelters or rescues. The Petfinder.com website is a great resource for finding information on local animal shelters and rescues.

***I couldn’t find a link with Google to the “County animal shelters facing a cat crisis” article (I only have the hard physical copy of the newspaper). If anyone has a direct link to the article I’d be happy to give credit here.

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