Abandoned dogs on the rise since the pandemic

Leaving town and puppy's naughtiness are common reasons that people cite when they abandon the pooches

This year had started out as a good one for adoption centres as many pet lovers came forward to take a furry friend home. Thanks to work-from-home, people felt that they had the time to take care of one (or more).

However, in the last month or so, with workload increasing or offices resuming, taking care of the pet suddenly became a burden to many. A few others who left town decided to leave their furry pal behind.

That’s how Mallika Ghosh, a resident of CV Raman Nagar area, found indie pup Storm. She narrates, “I found Storm a couple of months ago, lost, as if he was looking for his way back home. We helped him get better with professional help and have been taking care of him since. But, we still haven’t found a suitable family for Storm.”

Mallika has been consistently putting up adoption posts on social media, taking the pup to Cubbon Park and even took to creating an Instagram page to speed up the adoption process.

Animal activists have also noticed dogs being abandoned at different areas of the city, particularly Cubbon Park. Often, they are just returned to animal shelters.

Charlie’s Animal Rescue Centre (CARE) has been receiving returns. Founder Sudha Narayan tells Metrolife that three puppies were returned in October.

“Some adopters are realising that they don’t want to take up the responsibility and aren’t investing in the time to train them properly. Despite us counselling them about puppy behaviours, they give us excuses that the pup is just too naughty,” shares Sudha. Abandonments haven’t stopped either. Sudha says, “We now have 11-year-old blind pug with us who was left behind by her family when they moved out of town. Their neighbours brought her in and it’s really sad to see her in a condition where she can’t even tell where she is and what’s happening to her.”

However, things are not all that dire. In October alone, CARE saw 20 adoptions.

Sanjana Madappa of Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), on the other hand, hasn’t had any returns. She says, “We did predict that there will be people who will want to adopt just because they have the time now and might not be willing to keep them in the long run. So we made sure that our adoption processes were extremely strict.”

She points out that since the ABC programmes had to be stopped for a couple of months due to the pandemic, there have been many street pups being born. “We are hoping that it’ll start soon and we can sterilise the dogs again,” she adds.