Prince William animal shelter sees uptick in adoptions, fewer surrendered animals

While the world may seem chaotic during coronavirus pandemic, there is a little bit of good news when it comes to animals that need our help.

The Prince William County Animal Shelter’s adoption rate is up 70%, a 28% increase from last year, according to Jeremy Beale, a spokesman for the Prince William County Animal Control Bureau. There is no way to tell why adoptions have increased, but the new coronavirus may have something to do with it.

“People adopt animals from the shelter for a number of reasons. While there is no way of knowing for certain if COVID-19 has attributed to an increased rate of adoption, a connection can be made.” said Beale.

Currently, the shelter only has 20 animals up for adoption, with an average of 14-17 being adopted per week.

In addition to adoption rates being up, animal intake (stray animals coming into the shelter/people surrendering animals) rates are down by 38%. This has to do with both people being able to stay home and care for their animals more, and the fact that the shelter has put a hold on taking in healthy stray cats to reduce the chance of overpopulation, according to Beale.

While it is possible many of the adopted animals could be brought back once people return to work, the shelter is not concerned. According to Beale, the shelter is ‘always prepared for the circumstance where the animals come back’ and has been posting training videos for dogs/cats on their Facebook page to aid owners in being able to handle their pets better. The shelter has also set up a pet food pantry to aid people in feeding their pets. 

“It is very hard to determine if animals will be returned to the shelter later on, but we firmly believe that anyone who does adopt an animal is equipped to handle them,” said Beale. 

For those interested in adopting from the shelter, there are new health procedures in place. In April, the shelter set into effect precautionary measures due to the new coronavirus and is now only allowing visitors in at 30-minute intervals with an appointment. Visitors who are interested in dogs, however, do not enter the building whatsoever. The dogs are brought outside to meet them, and then, if the visitor is interested, the adoption process takes place. All visitors are asked to wear face masks or coverings.

Visitors are also asked to identify a specific pet they are interested in before visiting the shelter. This can be done on the shelter’s PetFinder, a website that shows all of the animals currently available for adoption and gives a general description of them.

The pet shelter can be contacted at (703)-792-6465 or animalshelter@pwcgov.org.

“The one thing that I think has been really amazing during this time is the community that supports the shelter has come out and supported us in every way possible We are seeing so many people from our community engage with the shelter in ways that are helping us getting so many more animals adopted out sooner,” said Beale.