Laura Kelly/The Daily NorthwesternHumans aren’t the only ones suffering from the recent economic slide. Animals are, too.
Over the past few months, animal shelters in Evanston and Chicago have seen an increase in the number of surrendered animals, and fewer people are coming in to adopt, said shelter employees, who pointed to the economy as one of the reasons.
“It’s not always about job loss,” said Matt Gannon, manager at Red Door Animal Shelter, a small shelter in Chicago. “People are still surrendering for a lot of the same reasons – they have allergies, or they’re moving, or something like that … but there’s definitely been an increase because of job loss.”
Employees at C.A.R.E. (Community Animal Rescue Effort), located at 2310 Oakton St. in Evanston, have also been fielding more phone calls from pet owners looking for a place to surrender their animals, said Gail Lovinger, the organization’s community liaison. Lovinger and her colleagues saw the first economically related surrenders in September.
Lovinger also reported a slight drop in financial contributions to the shelter. Some regular contributors are donating less money every month. Some donors include notes with their checks, saying they do not know when they will be able to send another.
One contributor, Lovinger said, sent $2 and a note saying, “I wish it could be more. I’m unemployed. Buy American cars. I definitely need the work.”
Every time someone adopts an animal from C.A.R.E., the organization loses anywhere from $100 to $2000 because even though the city of Evanston pays for the shelter’s mortgage and utilities, animals oftentimes come in need of expensive medical treatment, Lovinger said. These days, she said, stray animals found by Evanston residents and delivered to C.A.R.E. are in worse condition than before the economic downturn – possibly because more people are letting their pets go in the wild instead of surrendering them to a shelter like C.A.R.E.
Both Gannon and Lovinger said fewer people have been coming into the shelter looking to adopt.
“It’s been quiet,” Lovinger said, but “well-behaved dogs are still going quickly.”
But the less-than-perfect dogs are not quite so fortunate and sometimes have to spend a long time in the shelter.
The situation seems pretty grim for pets.
Elyse Schwartz seems to agree. Schwartz is a Weinberg junior and site leader for OASIS, a Northwestern volunteer organization. Every other week, she leads a group of students to Felines, Inc., a Chicago animal shelter.
“Obviously, it’s a shame, and it’s sad,” Schwartz said. “But I guess sometimes people don’t have a choice.”
As Gannon pointed out, at least many pet owners who can no longer afford to take care of their animals are doing the responsible thing by taking them to places like C.A.R.E. and Red Door instead of letting them go in the wild.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Gannon. “But it’s understandable, given the circumstances. It’s just the way things are right now.”
