RICHMOND, Va. — Surrender requests have surged to nearly 20 per day while adoption rates continue to plummet, according to Richmond Animal Care and Control Director Christie Chipps-Peters.
“We thought we hit the end of the COVID folks who got dogs dumping them. But this is something like we've never seen before, and we are not unique to what is happening,” Chipps-Peters explained. “It's happening literally every single day here, and it's madness.”
Chipps-Peters, who has led the Chamberlayne Avenue shelter for more than 10 years, said some pet owners are not telling the truth about their animal when requesting to surrender them.
“We're seeing the number of people who are relinquishing or abandoning or bringing from surrounding counties to Richmond, claiming they found them as a stray dog, rise,” she stated.
RACC is now considering writing code that specifically outlines falsifying information about a pet surrender as a civil penalty. The shelter’s front door has a notice explicitly telling pet owners not to abandon or leave their animal unattended.
Chipps-Peters recalled one pet owner who showed up with a dog claiming they found it in North Carolina.
“We were like, ‘You need to take it back to the jurisdiction in which you found it,” Peters said. “Then an hour later, that dog is in our play yard. We pull our cameras, and [we saw] they walked around the back and abandoned that dog in our play yard when no one was looking.”
The surrenders add to the strays animal control officers find on the streets combined with pets associated with court cases.
“We're still inundated with the animals that we're taking from people who are abused and neglected and are taking up space waiting for court cases - which is 20 dogs at any point in time that are just waiting to find out what we can do with them and how we can charge their people,” Chipps-Peters said.
The economy and vet costs are a major factor for these surrenders. Other pet owners, Peters said, simply no longer want to care for the animal.
However, she said the shelter staff will work with that pet owner to provide food, medicine, vet care, a crate, and spay and neuter services.
RACC urges pet owners to do their due diligence and find their pet a new home first before considering seeking help from the shelter. They also encourage people to consider fostering to lighten the load on shelter staff.
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