BY KEVIN DUGGAN
From shelter in place to
sheltering pets!
Brooklynites have fostered
and adopted four-legged
friends en masse to keep them
company while they self-quarantine
during the ongoing coronavirus
outbreak — so much
so that the owner of one Gravesend
animal rescue has had
to turn prospective pet parents
away because they’ve run out
of furballs!
“It’s very unusual,” said the
the co-founder of Angels for
Mistreated Animals, or AMA
Animal Rescue, Anna Khazanova.
“More so ever than before
we have new fosters.”
Khazanova’s Cropsey Avenue
shelter usually has between
35 to 40 animals looking
for a home and last week a client
picked up their last remaining
pet amid the sudden surge
in demand.
She believes that many
Kings County animal lovers
have been motivated by the
pandemic to take care of a cat
or a dog, and she hopes that
some of the new foster parents
will become adopters, known
also as “foster failures.”
COURIER L 6 IFE, APRIL 3-9, 2020
“This has been the little
push they may have needed,”
she said. “We’re hoping to get
some foster failures, who win
as adopters.”
Her center still receives
calls every day and demand
has more than doubled in the
past weeks, she said.
This trend is happening
across the city as the shelter organization
Animal Care Centers
of NYC on Sunday tweeted
that more than 400 of their pets
have left their shelters either
through fostering, adoption, or
via another partnering organization.
Not only does it mean that
431 pets are resting comfortably
in a nice home, but ACC
staff can now direct their limited
resources to the pets that
need it the most.
Some shelters in the Five
Boroughs are seeing an increase
of as high as 10 times
their usual demand, Bloomberg
reported.
One Bay Ridge grad student
has decided to foster an
adorable two-year-old black pit
bull named Huck to take care
of in the coming months as she
faces studying and working
from home.
“I’ve always wanted a dog,
but with school and work
there wasn’t time,” said Gabrielle
Puglia. “If I’m going to
be stuck, I might as well give
someone else a home so they’re
not stuck at home too — this
one just kind of fell into my
lap.”
When Puglia went to pick up
the pooch at the Animal Care
Center’s Brooklyn outpost in
East New York on March 21,
she said that all of the shelter’s
cats and smaller dogs were already
taken. She’s happy to
have found Huck, who she says
has been a real pal.
“He’s is the sweetest dog
ever, I’ve had dogs before and
none has been this much of a
lap dog,” Puglia said.
Huck, is just one of a hundreds of
animals who have been fostered or
adopted. Photo by Gabrielle Puglia
Gabrielle Puglia and her boyfriend Frank Pesce with their fostered pooch
Huck. Courtesy of Gabrielle Puglia
Gimme shelter
Brooklynites foster pets en masse during quarantine
Initial visit with coupon only. Must mention at time of appointment. Excludes house calls. Expires 4/30/19
2020
Walk-Ins Welcome Brooklyn: Monday 9am - 2pm, Tuesday 3pm - 7pm, Friday 1pm - 6pm
2075 Flatbush Avenue
Avenue P / Near Library