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Americans Adopted Fewer Pets From Shelters In 2020 As The Supply Of Rescue Animals Fell, Shelly Volsche
Americans Adopted Fewer Pets From Shelters In 2020 As The Supply Of Rescue Animals Fell, Shelly Volsche
Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations
Demand for new pets certainly seemed to spike when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States in early 2020 and forced many Americans to spend more time isolated.
But adoptions from animal shelters and rescues actually fell 17% to approximately 1.6 million in 2020 from over 1.9 million in 2019, according to Shelter Animal Counts, a nonprofit that tracks data regarding animals that spend time in shelters.
How did Americans end up welcoming fewer rescued animals into their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic? The short answer is that there weren’t enough furry friends to go around.