Pandemic Pets: A Pawsitive Highlight of Quarantine
by Katie Gilkinson, Reporter
Local News
As we pass the one-year anniversary of quarantine, everyone is feeling the stress of the extended lockdown. That build-up of stress and anxiety caused more people to go out and get what is known as one or more “pandemic pets.”
According to a study done by SpringerLink in May of 2006, people who own a pet are over-all healthier people, and owning pets is better for mental health. When the pandemic hit in 2020, society started setting itself up for overall better health by adopting more pets. I asked Karen Kane, the secretary for Georgia Peaches Puppy Rescue—a rescue group that takes homeless dogs from Georgia and brings them over to Washington to find their forever homes— how her rescue has been affected by the pandemic.
Kane has always been an animal lover. She had pets as a child and wanted to have several more. She first volunteered at the Seattle Humane Society in high school, which sparked her love for helping animals. After college, she found out about Georgia Peaches and volunteered there. Since it is such a small rescue, they sometimes have trouble finding volunteers, but Kane stuck around because she enjoyed helping all of the animals. After about 2 years of volunteering, she got promoted to the board and became the secretary as well as a foster coordinator.
Washington state’s first stay-at-home order was initiated in May, which halted travel and led many to work from home. For these reasons and more, people figured that they would have time for a pet.
Kane affirmed saying, “When you get a puppy, they need to go out every few hours to be potty trained, so more people who would usually work at the office full time started realizing that they had time to do that.” Shelters took advantage of the stay-at-home order and started advertising that it was a great time to adopt a pet. “Another example is that it was sort of a publicity thing,” Kane explained. “People were wanting to show off their new pets on Zoom.
Big-name shelters rehomed dogs quickly, so adopters turned to smaller rescues. “There is a stigma about rescue dogs that there is something wrong with them, but that is 100% not true,” Kane answered when questioned about rescue dogs versus ones from a breeder. According to Postively.com, when you adopt a rescue dog, instead of one from a breeder, you are saving two lives: the dog you are adopting opens a spot for another dog that needs to be adopted.
“Sometimes when you get a dog from a pet shop or a puppy mill, there is no guarantee that they will take the dog back if it is not a good fit,” Kane noted. “Usually, with rescues, big and small, they will take the dog back if there is a problem.” Rescues are also dedicated to rehoming a dog with a family that can provide for it long-term, further separating them from pet shops and puppy mills that may be more concerned with profit margins.
According to Seattle.gov, there were 472 canines and 764 felines adopted out from rescue shelters in the year 2017. That came to a total of 1,236 cats and dogs adopted that year. There was no information regarding reptiles and other small animals in Washington state. According to an article on King5news.com, when they interviewed a spokesperson from Pasado’s Safe Haven, their rescue numbers spiked 50% just in March of 2020.
Most pets that Georgia Peaches takes in are from more southern communities. “In states such as Georgia and Louisiana, they have pets wandering on the streets,” Kane remarked. There is a certain amount of time that a shelter has to wait to adopt out one of those pets, because they need to see if it has a home. “In Washington, you don’t tend to see pets wandering all around, but in Georgia, it is a very common thing to see.”
COVID-19 affected many of the smaller rescues, including Georgia Peaches. Due to travel restrictions, they were unable to fly animals over. Georgia Peaches works through the Seattle Humane Society, which shut down for a while at the start of the outbreak.
Kane talked about how it affected their ability to bring dogs over to Washington. “Right now, we are just trying to raise money so the animals that we are going to fly over eventually can go to the vet and get some of the work that they need to be done, completed. Once we are able to fly animals over, they will have any procedures they need to be completed, and they will just need to make sure they are all good to go before we can adopt them out.” Georgia Peaches is trying to get donations via Facebook, which is also one of their biggest ways of advertising pets in need of adoption.
Hopefully, when life returns to normal, rescues can start back up and continue adopting out pets. Thankfully, there are still open rescues, so if you or a family member is looking to get a pet, rescue! There are an incredible amount of rescues with animals looking to find their forever homes. Smaller shelters are struggling right now, and adopting a pet will not only benefit the shelter but yourself. I highly recommend the popular pet-adoption site, PetFinder. Who knows, you could just find the perfect match!
DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet.
Sources
30, Bill Buell November, et al. “Shelter vs Breeder.” Victoria Stilwell Positively, positively.com/dog-behavior/new-dogs/shelter-vs-breeder/#:~:text=Rescuing a dog will save one of those lives.&text=You are responsible for training, responsible for all its vetting.
K.M.. Allen, J.. Blascovich, et al. “Pets and Human Health in Germany and Australia: National Longitudinal Results.” Social Indicators Research, Springer Netherlands, 1 Jan. 1991, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-005-5072-z.
L.F. Carver Assistant Professor & Privacy and Ethics Officer at the Centre for Advanced Computing. “How the Coronavirus Pet Adoption Boom Is Reducing Stress.” The Conversation, 14 Jan. 2021, theconversation.com/how-the-coronavirus-pet-adoption-boom-is-reducing-stress-138074.
Land, Author: Ted. “Pet Adoptions Spike during Washington's Coronavirus Crisis.” king5.Com, 26 Mar. 2020, www.king5.com/article/news/animal-rescue-groups-see-uptick-in-pet-adoptions-during-coronavirus-pandemic/281-60ffe985-dea3-49c0-8be2-eae4510937a3.