Rising costs have groups seeing more "owner surrenders" – Bay News 9

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MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — During the height of the pandemic, pet rescue groups saw tremendous support from the community with a lot of people adding new furry additions to their families, but now, they’re seeing a new trend, an increase in the number of "owner surrenders," mostly due to COVID.
Much like everything else lately, the price of owning a pet has increased dramatically, and local rescue groups, like Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue in Bradenton, say it’s too much for some people to afford, and they’re now forced to give up their pets.
Even the price of pet food has increased dramatically. 
The Pet Food Institute reports a significant increase in the price because of a significant decrease in the supply of ingredients needed because of supply chain issues.  
Karissa Mayer works for Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue.  Mayer said they’ve been helping pets find homes, and providing shelter, since 2007 when a group of volunteers formed the rescue organization.  This year, they’re on track to adopt out about 2000 pets, but right now, Mayer says it’s not enough.
Recently, they’ve seen a tremendous increase in the number of owner surrenders, and they’re not alone.  Mayer says rescue groups and animal shelters across the Tampa Bay area are experiencing the same thing.
Mayer said it’s not the people who adopted during the pandemic, though.  The people surrendering their pets are people who have had their pet for many years, people who have senior pets with expensive vet bills, and people who inherited pets from senior family members who were impacted by COVID, who ultimately can’t keep up with their care. 
"The requests that we’re getting now are for people who have owned an animal for many years and thought their situation would change as the economy recovered, and it hasn’t, and they’ve exhausted their resources, and they’re not able to care for their pet," said Mayer.
Mayer said there are programs to help keep pets with their owners. 
There are pet food pantries, and low cost veterinarians at the Human Society.

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