Pets Adopted During Pandemic Are Being Returned in Record Numbers

A lot of things changed for millions of Americans over the last year. From the way we live to the way we grocery shop and everything in-between. One major change for many of us during the height of the pandemic was how much time we all spent at home. Remote and teleworking surged to an all-time high across the country as employers struggled to keep their employees safe and working all at the same time.

Of course with all this newly found home-time, millions of people found it to be a perfect opportunity to adopt a new pet into their homes. Makes sense right? Especially for people adopting puppies who would need to be socialized and house-trained. Being home all the time allows for constant attention to be paid to the newly adopted animal.

However, even though we saw a huge spike in pet adoptions during 2020, we are now seeing a huge spike in pets being returned in 2021. According to Fox News, may people who less than a year ago thought they were ready for a new pet are now finding out that they are not.

In a quote from Aron Jones from Moms & Mutts in Colorado,

"We made a lot of changes to our adoption process to prevent people from returning dogs once pandemic ended. But for the past four months, we have had an extreme number of returns. We have doubled more than what we normally do during a year. I think what is happening, the world is opening up, people are going back to work, they’re traveling. People aren’t just lonely anymore, so the dogs are not necessarily fitting into their lifestyles, and they are returning them instead of trying to make adjustments to keep their dog now that the world is opening up."

Hopefully this trend declines and animals stop being returned to the same places they came from, especially as more and more companies around the globe begin to adopt a full-time teleworking model.

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