(Clockwise from top left) Tigger, Leroy, Oreo, Mocha, and
Madison are all up for adoption. NYCACC
adoptions as New York offi ces reopen
COURIER LIFE, SEPTEMBER 3-9, 2021 5
Roberts said. “But I think that
having him now defi nitely
brings so much joy to my life.”
Back to reality
Despite that joy, shelters,
including the Brooklyn ACC,
are fi lling up again.
“It’s like the opposite of
what we were experiencing
last summer, where we had no
available animals,” said Katy
Hansen, executive director
of marketing at Animal Care
Centers NYC. “Now we have a
ton of available animals and
we have no adopters. It’s really
sad, it’s this way across
the country right now.”
Last August, Hansen said,
the ACC had about 680 animals
in residence across four
locations. Now, they have
nearly 1,000.
“The other problem is
even though our intake is
down, the animals are staying
in the shelter longer,” she
told Brooklyn Paper. “So we
might be getting less and less
in, but they’re joining more
and more as they’re staying
longer.”
The ideal population is low
enough that the ACC can keep
their doors open to transfers
from other shelters, Hansen
said, which gives animals a
“double run” — more adoptable
time. But, when they
start to get too packed, they
close for transfers.
“The next point is to put
cages in the hallway,” she
said. “The point after that
— I hope we don’t get to that
point. We haven’t had to get to
the point where we’re euthanizing
for space, and we have
a really big foster program,
and it’s growing. They’re really
saving lives.”
Helping out
Fostering an animal even
for a few weeks helps, as it
gives the animal space to decompress
from shelter life
and staff the opportunity to
see how a dog will behave in a
home, Hansen said. The organization
provides foster families
with food, crates, and supplies.
Manisha Shah started volunteering
at the Brooklyn
ACC about two years ago, after
she’d fostered a few dogs,
and adopted her own, Wolfi e.
She and two other volunteers
took matters into their
own hands to promote adoptions
through the shelter’s Instagram
account, @boroughbredinbrooklyn.
“The goal of that is really,
the city shelter is stretched
pretty thin,” she said, hoping
to remedy the situation. “Part
of our role as volunteers is we
photograph, take video of, and
write bios for pretty much every
dog that is in shelter and
adoptable. We wanted a place
to showcase all those dogs,
and we ended up getting a lot
of followers and a lot of adoptions
from it.”
Though adoptions have
defi nitely slowed, Hansen
said the rumor that pandemic
pets were being returned in
high numbers is false, at least
at ACC.
Pre-pandemic, their average
return rate was about 11
percent, she said. In 2020, it
fell to about four percent, and
it’s stayed more or less the
same since.
“The animals that are getting
returned are the ones
that are from families who
are really struggling,” she
said. “I do like to tell everyone
that we have a lot of resources
at our disposal to help people
keep their pets.”
If owners are struggling to
afford food, she said, or need
help with a behavioral issue,
ACC can donate or connect
them with trainers. In the fi rst
three months of 2021, they donated
nearly 90,000 pounds of
pet food and funded 12 training
sessions, according to
their fi rst-quarter report.
As for people who might be
worried about leaving their
pets alone again, or holding
back on adoption while they’re
working in-person, Shah said
the pups often adjust well to
their new homes, and typically
spend their alone times
sleeping until their human
companions come home.
“A lot of people get worried
that, oh, I’m going to go
to work so I can’t have a dog,”
Shah said. “But most dogs
are just going to sleep for the
most of the day, and as long
as you’re spending time with
them before and after and doing
things with them, enriching
things, I think that dogs
are actually pretty fi ne in that
type of environment.”
Learn more about adopting
a foster pet from the Brooklyn
ACC at www.nycacc.org/
CanineAssessment
link
link
link
/
/
