As the novel coronavirus pandemic rages on, homeless people may be facing bleak prospects in Chicago, but not homeless pets. In the days before Governor J.B. Pritzker issued his stay-at-home order and in the weeks since, local animal shelters have been inundated with demand to foster and adopt dogs, cats, rabbits, lizards, roosters, and every other available critter. The number of available pets has dwindled to historic lows even as animal shelters (deemed by the state to be an essential service) have continued to take in new animals. However, animal rescues have also seen a decline in the charitable donations that keep their operations afloat.
Smith says her organization is taking “painstaking care” in matching animals with adopters to reduce the likelihood of returns. She says many of the interested adopters say they’d been considering getting a pet for a while but couldn’t find a good time to engage with the process until now. “We’re pretty confident that our people are solidly making this decision now,” she says. “Of the 63 dogs we’ve placed in the last three weeks only two were not good fits.” No cats have been returned to the shelter since the lockdown started.
Animals who’ve been abandoned or rescued from dangerous conditions are typically taken into the city’s animal shelter, run by the Department of Animal Care and Control. Private shelters like ACS serve in a backup capacity to handle overflow. But the city’s shelter, too, has hit an all-time low of pets available for adoption since the shelter-in-place order. During the second week of April, the city shelter (which also provides free food and veterinary referrals to people in need) ran out of adoptable pets completely. On Wednesday, the city shelter had just 55 animals—47 dogs, six cats, and two birds—according to spokeswoman Jenny Schlueter. Last year on April 15 the shelter had 268 animals.
