ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — In the gray cloud of COVID-19, a silver lining appeared for the dogs and cats stuck in shelters.
In the month of August alone Stray Rescue of St. Louis saw almost three times the amount of adoptions compared to August last year. And as an added bonus they have around double the number of foster placements too.
"During this horrific pandemic, that no one has ever experienced, the animals are getting out of the shelters," said Stray Rescue Executive Director, Cassidy Caldwell. She attributes the increase in adoptions and foster placements to people being at home more and having the opportunity to acclimate a pet into their families.
She says they never stopped taking in animals, but they did have to pause adoptions for a couple of weeks as they figured out how to keep things safe for the staff and the public. She said some shelters had to stop taking in animals for various reasons during the beginning of the pandemic and Stray Rescue was able to take in what they couldn't.
"A shelter can't just shut down," Caldwell says.
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As they gained their bearings on how they were going to handle the pandemic and also perform their mission, Stray Rescue made the change to appointment only adoptions. Caldwell said it's a change they just might keep.
"We are able to find much better matches and are building better relationships with the adoptees," Caldwell says.
And as an added bonus, with space and resources opening up at Stray Rescue, Caldwell is able to reach out to other shelters in more isolated regions.
"I've been able to get a lot of puppies from high kill shelters because families are at home more," Caldwell says.
Stray Rescue is not the only shelter in the St. Louis area seeing a bump in animal adoptions and fosters. Five Acres Animal Shelter in St. Charles City also has seen an increase stating they've had record numbers of cat adoptions. We'll have more on them next week.
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