As soon as the dogs came out from their crate and jumped excitedly into Lia’s arms, she knew there was no chance that the animals were only there for a day.
Shelter puppies Odie and Carmel had just found their forever home.
Lia Santos is just one among thousands to have fostered or adopted shelter animals amid coronavirus lockdowns.
“The kids had been begging for a dog for a long time and so was my husband – he’s always had dogs, but we haven’t as a family. I’d always felt we didn’t really have time to train puppies but obviously I’m home more now and the kids’ school has shut down for the rest of the year,” Lia explained, according to Human Resources Consultant.
“Honestly I felt like the kids were starting to get sad. They’re very, very social. They’re both extroverts so not having play dates and social interaction and not having sports has been really quite a change for them.”
She continued: “A friend of mine was fostering the puppies. She knew the kids wanted a dog and she knew they were feeling kind of sad so she said, ‘Why don’t I bring the puppies over and they can just play with them?’”
Celebrities and well-known figures, including Miley Cyrus, Kaia Gerber, Selena Gomez, and Donna Brazile, have also done the same and encouraged others to foster or adopt an animal.
According to the Daily Mail, the Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington DC has seen over 1,000 people sign up to foster animals in only 10 days.
In New York, shelters have seen a surge of applications to adopt dogs and cats. The Dumb Friends League Shelter in Denver currently has a waiting list of 2,000 people who want to foster, and foster applications in Pennsylvania have also increased from 3 to 4 per week to over 40 a day.
Shelters in South Carolina, Riverside, and Rochester were among several to report that they had been emptied of animals while fostering and adopting applications to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York City and Los Angeles are up 200%.
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Replaced!