A Pennsylvania animal shelter is hailing a miraculous moment as it has emptied its dog facilities for the first time in the last 50 years.
The Friday announcement was made in a Facebook post by the Adams County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It said that their kennels were nearly filled to the brim two weeks ago but they did not have a single dog in the building at all.
Pennsylvania Animal Shelter Empties Dog Facilities
The post added that this was the first time in 47 years that the Adams County SPCA was empty, let alone at Christmas. People who work at the animal shelter celebrate having a shelter that does not have a single dog after so many animals were adopted or reunited with their owners.
The development included nearly 600 animals who could find their fur-ever homes in the past year alone. In its Facebook post, the shelter added that they adopted 598 animals and reunited 125 strays with their owners, as per Yahoo News.
The Adams County SPCA also noted that it was not completely free of animals, as one cat had recently come in as a stray. Moving forward, the facility will help house animals from other shelters across the state to relieve some of the other shelters' stress.
The shelter credits the massive accomplishments to its hard-working staff and volunteers, who "have worked very hard to take care of the animals in our care." They also worked tirelessly to ensure the animals were adopted to the right home.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said that roughly 6.3 million animals are taken into shelters across the United States every year. It added that more than 3 million animals are dogs and roughly 3.2 million are cats within those shelters.
The society also reported that roughly 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized every year. According to The Guardian, this number represents a drop from the more than 2.5 million cats and dogs who were being euthanized in shelters in 2011.
Rising Number of Animals in Shelters Nationwide
The decline is attributed partially to an increase in the percentage of animals that are being adopted and an increase in the number of stray animals that are successfully reunited with their owners.
The situation comes as animal shelters in other parts of the United States are overflowing as people dump their pets who are considered "pandemic puppies." This is partially caused by the rising cost of living in the country forcing people to reallocate their funds to other necessities, away from their pets.
In 2021, the number of animals entering shelters rose after a pandemic-related dip. Furthermore, adoptions have been unable to keep up with the influx of pets, especially larger dogs. The situation has created a snowballing population problem for many animal shelters.
A national database of shelter statistics, the Shelter ANimals Count, estimates that the U.S. shelter population grew by nearly a quarter-million animals this year alone, said Fortune.
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