Pueblo Humane Society seeks more funding to keep up with growing workload
The Pueblo chapter of the Humane Society for the Pikes Peak Region is returning to pre-pandemic levels of pet intakes and adoptions and handling a workload similar to that of other shelters across the state with a notably smaller budget, according to a presentation at a Pueblo City Council work session Monday evening.
The Humane Society will request approximately 20% more funding from Pueblo city and county governments as it compiles its budget for next year to account for an increase in operational costs and higher demand for contractual services.
The city of Pueblo contributed approximately $1.4 million to the Humane Society last year.
National trends show shelter intakes increasing
Animal shelters across the country have recorded a 3% increase in intakes in the first six months of 2022 compared to last year. However, numbers are still lagging from 2019 — the last full year of data before the COVID-19 pandemic — as this year's data show a more than 14% decrease in intakes compared to three years ago.
Among states in the mountain region, which includes Colorado, there has been a higher increase in pets admitted to shelters and less of an overall dip recorded since 2019.
According to national and regional data, shelters have been taking in fewer dogs than they were prior to the pandemic. But while nationwide averages show shelters have taken in fewer cats in the first six months of 2022 compared to 2019, regional data indicates a slight increase (0.6%) in that time frame, as well as an 8.2% overall uptick in cat intakes from 2021 to 2022.
Adoption data reflects a similar trend, where the number of adopted cats from January to June increased by 3% nationwide from 2019 to 2022, but has increased by more than 24% in the mountain region. Meanwhile, the number of adopted dogs has decreased.
“You can only adopt out animals if you're taking in more animals. It takes more animals to be able to adopt them out,” Duane Adams, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, said at the city council work session.
Local data shows Pueblo, Colorado Springs shelters surpassing state trends
The Humane Society’s shelters in Pueblo and Colorado Springs have recorded some of the highest numbers of pets taken in and adopted out among the nearly 400 licensed pet shelters and rescues across the state.
According to the data, the Pueblo location adopted out more than 1,200 cats in 2021, which was the ninth-highest among all Colorado shelters and rescues. Pueblo County's shelter also had above-average rates of stray cat intakes and cats surrendered by owners.
Adams shared at the work session annual data from around the state that showed how the community intake of cats and dogs, which includes owner-relinquished pets as well as strays, dipped significantly in 2020 but seemed to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2021.
Colette Bradley, a spokesperson with the Humane Society, added in a statement to the Chieftain that shelters used to take in more dogs than cats, but the trend locally began flipping in the other direction in 2021.
The percentage of stray dogs and cats taken in that are returned to their owner varies greatly for cats and dogs. Approximately two out of three stray dogs taken to Colorado shelters are returned to their owners, whereas only 14% of stray cats were reunited with an owner in 2021.
Bradley said that most stray dogs have owners, but more stray cats are feral and are born without an owner. Also, some stray cats that come into the shelter are roaming cats that owners expect to come home eventually.
“We strongly encourage microchipping and licensing of all pets to help increase those return-to-owner numbers,” Bradley said.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Humane Society seeking more funding to meet growing workload
