The Tallahassee Animal Service Center is, roughly, 80% full. Assistant Director Michael St. John says it’s not unusual for the facility to take in more pets during the summer.
“Some of those are surrenders, where people have been considering surrendering their animals. And then, they decide because of some things that are happening in the summer, they want to travel or they’re moving, things like that, this would be the time to do it. So, we do get animals that way. We also get a lot of newborn puppies and kittens coming in,” St. John says.
He says there haven’t been many returns of adopted pets, but says when they do get animal surrenders, it doesn’t seem to be pandemic related.
“It’s, generally, been more of a behavioral issue or fitting in with the household,” St. John says.
St. John says when the pandemic first began, the center was concerned it would have a huge influx of pets. So, they stopped accepting non-emergency owner surrenders beginning March 2020 and lifted that suspension in March of this year.
