Pet Shelters Everywhere Running Out Of Shelter

The ACC (Animal Care Centers of NYC) have made the difficult but necessary decision to halt pet drop-offs at their 5 locations. Due to an unprecedented number of pets surrenders, the ACC has reached maximum capacity with close to 1,000 animals in cages, and it doesn’t have the room or the resources to care for any more.

As posted on their Instagram: “We have never had this many animals in our care before. This isn’t a drill. This is a crisis… We’re not crying wolf. We’re crying for help.”

Long Island is also currently experiencing a high volume of pet surrenders, causing a capacity crisis right here at home.

For anyone looking to adopt: NBC Universal will hold its annual clear the shelters campaign, encouraging people to adopt from local shelters, August 1st to 31st.

But why are so many pets suddenly being placed in these shelters? Reasons given on surrender papers cite: housing insecurity, the high cost of pet food, care and medical. The pandemic also played a role, with many people adopting pets while they were home, but no longer having time to care for them now that they have returned to the office. And while these reasons are part of it, recent ICE raids have also had an effect on this increase. Families frightened of detention are forced to make a difficult decision if they are unable to provide housing or care for themselves or their pets. Many are afraid to go to work, and are facing financial strain, housing instability and unstable futures. And family members or friends of those that have been taken, are suddenly left with a pet they can’t provide for, or don’t have room for. It’s a problem for dogs, cats and any small animal in a cage or a tank. The ACC right now has some guinea pigs and even a few birds.

LA is experiencing the same issue, with farm animals also being impacted. The LA dept of animal care and control saw an increase in all 7 county shelters as immigration raids began last month.

On Florida’s Gulf coast, at Cape Coral Animal shelter, there were more than a dozen surrenders in one week from deported families. “It’s making a common problem worse,” said one shelter official.

A Las Vegas animal care facility had 31 animals processed in a week. 6 were strays, the rest owner surrenders. Reasons given: job loss, moving, can’t care for.

According to TRAC (accurate info of actual gov data and statics) ICE was holding 57,000 people in detention as of last month. 71% of them, 40,643, had no criminal convictions, with ICE detentions reaching their highest number since 2019.

NYC News, 7 days ago: From 1/25-6/25, ICE arrested 2,009 people. Arrests are now spiking and they’re targeting people with no criminal records. Federal records don’t specify where the arrests happened but 965 of them through June 10th were processed at Fed Plaza, NYC. 67% of those arrested this year have not been deported, leaving more than 7,000 people in detention centers as of 6/29.

Congress recently added another 45 billion dollars to immigration detention, and 30 billion for arrest and deportation efforts. It is estimated that ICE will open another 125,000 beds in detention camps.

In an unrelated story, Congress was adjourned early this week by Speaker Mike Johnson, before voting for a release on the Epstein files. They will not be back in DC until September. If you need to reach out to your reps regarding any of these issues during the whole month of August you should try them at their local offices.

Info cited: KCAL, Gulf Coast News, KTNV, CBS, NBC, NYC News, ABC 13