Colorado’s animal shelters are reaching the end of their leash with capacities, a struggle fueled by skyrocketing prices and a lack of accessible, pet-friendly housing, animal advocates say.
“What’s happening in animal shelters is just so reflective of what’s happening in the community,” Foothills Animal Shelter Executive Director Maggie McSchaefer said. “When people are struggling to find affordable housing, when people are struggling to find pet-friendly housing, when the cost of pet food and veterinary care is so high, it makes it so much harder to welcome a pet into your life and into your home.”
They aren’t surrendering their pets because they want to, but because they have to, McSchaefer said.
More pets, longer stays
Colorado’s animal shelters have seen unprecedented intakes in the past years, McScaefer said. Intakes include strays brought into the shelter, pets surrendered by their owners, animals transferred from other shelters and impounds.
Jefferson County’s Foothills Animal Shelter noticed the influx of animals really started to grow in 2021, McScaefer said. That year, the shelter took in 7,700 animals.
Intakes peaked in 2023, just shy of 10,000 animals, McScaefer said.
While the Jefferson County shelter has seen a slight decrease in intakes this year, the animal population remains crowded and far above pre-COVID-19 levels. So far in 2024, the shelter has taken in roughly 9,000 animals.
Colorado shelters as a whole have taken in just under 77,000 animals this year, down from 94,000 in 2023 but up from 76,000 in 2020, according to data from Shelter Animals Count, which partners with the Humane Society to gather information from shelters across the country.
Mary Sarah Fairweather, vice president of sheltering at Denver’s Dumb Friends League, said the Dumb Friends League and shelters across the state are also seeing more and more dogs with medical and behavioral issues that lengthen their stays.
“Some of these dogs need to only be with children, some of them need ongoing medical care, some need socialization or training,” Fairweather said. “That’s asking a lot of the pet owners to take on.”
The Foothills Animal Shelter averaged a length of stay of eight and a half days in 2023, when intake numbers peaked across the country, McSchaefer said.
So far this year, that number is closer to seven and a half days, she said. While that’s an improvement from last year, it’s still above the shelter’s normal average of four to five days.
“That includes the kittens that are adopted within hours and the dogs that might be with us for six weeks … so it’s both representative and not,” McSchafer said, adding that she starts to notice the strain when the average hits eight days.
Lindsay Hamrick, director of shelter outreach and engagement at the Humane Society of the United States, said that overcrowding remains an issue across the country, even as intakes decline.
“Essentially what’s happened since the pandemic is a backlog of animals because there haven’t been enough adoptions,” Hamrick said. “(Overall), there’s actually fewer animals coming in but, because over the last four years they haven’t left quickly enough, there’s hundreds of thousands of animals stuck in the system, waiting to be adopted out.”
Colorado faces both issues, according to local animal shelters. Adoptions have held steady, but the number of animals coming in continues to outpace them.
Raining cats and dogs
Hamrick said the economic hardships driving animal surrenders in Colorado are illustrated by the changes in trends for cats and dogs.
“Historically, cats have struggled more, but that’s changing,” Hamrick said.
Today, cat and dog intakes are about even and cats are doing much better with adoption, according to data from Shelter Animals Count. Hamrick said that’s because people can usually find a place to live with cats that they couldn’t with dogs.
“The animals who are now waiting the longest for adoption are large dogs,” Hamrick said.
Fairweather said numbers for both cats and dogs are currently holding steady at the Dumb Friends League. She said the shelter took in lots of dogs during the summer and temporarily had to limit the number of intake appointments at the shelter, but operations have almost returned to normal.
“We’re at a good number where we can devote a lot of attention to the animals in our care and also help out our Colorado partners who need us,” Fairweather said. “We’re actually taking in quite a few transfers from local Colorado shelters who are overcapacity or who don’t have the resources to devote to their animals.”
The Foothills Animal Shelter in Jefferson County is also experiencing a lull, but it can’t yet support other shelters outside its community the way it did before, McSchaefer said.
Helping shelters: Adoption and beyond
“We do our best to create a comfortable and loving environment for all the pets in our care but, at the end of the day, it’s just not a home,” Fairweather said.
Hamrick said the best way to help shelters is the obvious solution: adoption. But, if people aren’t in a place to adopt a pet, volunteering to walk dogs, clean kennels or take a pet for an afternoon or weekend is the next best thing.
While not offered at all shelters, that option allows people to avoid the formal process of becoming foster families or volunteers while still giving animals a break from the shelter.
“We used to think that those programs might hurt or be more stressful for the animals because they have to leave and come back, but the research shows that a couple nights of good sleep really helps the ability of those dogs to get back into the shelter and find a permanent home,” Hamrick said.
The programs free up space in the kennels, give staff more time to work with other animals and often result in cute photos and videos that can be used to market the pets and help them find permanent homes, Hamrick said.
“Sharing the faces of adoptable animals is another great way to be supportive because they might not be the one for you, but your second cousin or that person you went to high school with might totally fall in love, and they might not have even seen that face if you didn’t share it,” McSchaefer said.
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