North Shore residents opened their hearts and homes to adopt unwanted pets during COVID-19 lockdowns. Now, animal shelters are once again at capacity and appealing for help.
When COVID hit Australia in March 2020 thousands of North Shore residents turned to local animal shelters for furry companions to help keep themselves and their families occupied during lockdowns.
However, now people are starting to live less-restricted lives in a post-pandemic society, local shelters including SAFE Rehoming in Roseville, the RSPCA and Monika’s Doggie Rescue, say they are once again at capacity.
The organisations are appealing to local residents – especially those who work from home – to consider adopting a pet.
Tim Crossman, general manager of the SAFE Haven Rehoming Centre in Roseville, says the shelter is:
“Inundated with people wanting to bring cats and kittens in they have found on the street, along with people surrendering their pets for all of the pre-pandemic reasons, such as moving house or back overseas and family members passing away.”
The centre had an influx of unforeseen adoptions during the lockdowns, with Tim explaining, “No one knew what to expect when the pandemic first started and we were bracing for the worst, but little did we know what was ahead.
“The first lockdown brought a lot of people out of the woodwork who wanted to adopt but the lockdown in the middle of 2021 gave us enormous figures.”
In the four months of lockdown in early 2020, SAFE Rehoming Centre saw an average of around 19 animals adopted per month. While in the five months of lockdown in mid-2021, an average of about 35 animals per month were adopted.
Pre-pandemic, the shelter’s all animal adoption average (between August 2019 – February 2020) was eight adoptions per month.
The RSPCA tells North Shore Living it couldn’t keep up with the demand for kittens during the pandemic, confirming, “This uptake in animal adoptions was heart-warming to see, as many of our long-term residents were able to find loving forever homes during this time.”
Monika Biernacki, from the Northern Beaches’ Monika’s Doggie Rescue, revealed the rescue currently has 80 dogs in care and 20 in foster homes, as well as an array of cats and kittens.
While her shelter is based in Ingleside, it rescues and rehomes dogs from all over the state, including the North Shore.
She says people were ‘getting animals left, right and centre’ at the beginning of the pandemic and the pounds, which had previously been constantly full, suddenly had space.
Between January and December 2020 alone, 104 animals were adopted from Monika’s Doggie Rescue. A further 65 were adopted throughout 2021.
Now more people are returning to the office, Monika says the shelters are once again full, suggesting some people who acquired a pet during lockdown might not have realised how much responsibility is involved.
North Shore Living is aware of reports of people desperately begging on social media groups for someone to take in their pets over the school holidays, and then deleting their accounts and not picking them up the animal.
“As far as I am aware, everybody is at capacity or over capacity,” Monika says.
“Nothing is moving from the shelters and because we are not adopting out, it means that we can’t take more in. All the other shelters are the same.
“It’s never been like this, and I’ve been in the game for more than 20 years.”
Although the pounds and rescues are at capacity, SAFE Rehoming, the RSPCA and Monika’s Doggie Rescue say they haven’t seen a high surrender rate of their adopted pets, due to their in-depth processes of carefully matching people with animals needing a home.
“No matter what the situation is, prospective pet owners should always carefully consider what is involved in being a responsible owner and decide whether they’ll be able to meet all their needs throughout the animal’s lifetime,” Monika says.
“In addition, they should think about what pet might best suit them and their lifestyle, get advice from reputable and trusted sources and follow some simple steps to avoid inadvertently getting a dog or puppy from a puppy farm or other source where the dogs’ welfare is not adequately protected.”
Niki Waldegrave and Jess Clarke