CLEVELAND — Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of anomalies and social trends were reported among a national population driven indoors and urged to social distance for more than a year.

One of those widely-reported trends was the idea of pandemic puppies or COVID kitties, which claims that there was a marked increase in adoptions of these animals as their new owners sought companionship during the months of isolation and that now many of these owners are surrendering their furry companions as they return to the office.

Katherine Schneider, an animal welfare professional with the Cleveland Animal Protective League, said those headlines are not quite accurate.

“That was not the case with us,” she said. 

Schneider said neither their shelter nor their partners across the nation have seen this trend in their communities. 

According to a national database, Shelter Animals Count, animal intake decreased about 23% and adoptions decreased about 17% across the nation in 2020.

“Our return rate last year was lower than it's ever been,” Schneider said.

Adoptions at the APL, she continued to state, were down about 30%, with COVID-19 shutting the adoption program down altogether for a time. For a while, the adoptions were handled virtually or curbside.

“Hundreds of cats went home that way,” she said.

However, during 2020, she acknowledges that their foster care program grew exponentially, adding around 300 new homes.

“We now have the capacity to continue caring and caring better for the animals in our community here on out,” she said.

Many new owners and foster families for these pets can’t imagine a life without their animals, Schneider said, which is why it’s important to set the record straight.

“The sad part about the story gaining traction was that it painted adopters and people who wanted to help in a negative light,” she said. “The truth of the matter is, more people were helping shelters like us survive.”

Shelters, like the APL, have now shifted their focus to helping support their community members.

“That’s kind of the future of where we’re going is not necessarily having to surrender pets to shelters but helping families in crisis be able to take care of their pets and keep that human-animal bond,” she said.