One upside of the COVID-19 pandemic is that thousands of people and families, working and learning at home, decided it was time to foster or adopt a dog.
Carole Moore of For the Love of Dogs Vermont said that by mid-December the dog rescue organization had received 1,300 applications for adoption or foster, up from a normal year of 500 applications. In a normal year, the organization adopts out 350 dogs. This year close to 700 dogs and puppies have been adopted out since March, she said.
“Everybody wants a dog,” Moore said.
Most of the adoptive families have been people with kids at home and people who are working from home. Moore said the organization has had an enormous number of puppies available this year and that has also increased the number of applications.
“In April, we decided we would continue with adoptions even though many of the shelters from which we adopt had closed. Many of them indefinitely. We had to make appointments, many stopped transporting into Vermont. The board made the decision that we were essential and continued with transporting. We follow unbelievably strict protocols with adopters as dogs come off transports. There’s no hand-to-hand contact and people are spaced 15 minutes apart. It’s complicated, but it saved a lot of dogs that would have been euthanized,” Moore said.
At the Central Vermont Humane Society, 832 animals were adopted into forever homes from January 1, 2020, through December 22, including dogs, cats and a smattering of other critters. That number is consistent with other years, humane society spokespeople said.
Visit For the Love of Dogs Vermont here: https://fortheloveofdogsvermont.com/adoptable-dogs.
And visit Central Vermont Humane Society here: https://centralvermonthumane.org/adopt-a-dog/.
