AUSTRALIAN POUNDS RECORD SPIKE IN ANIMALS AS CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN EASES

Animal pounds which recorded a spike in pet adoptions during the COVID-19 lockdown period are now facing spikes in capacity.

It’s feared the trend could be related to abandonment of pets as people have returned to work and normal life.

The Lost Dogs’ Home in North Melbourne recorded 566 adoptions in May – the most in a single month for more than two years.

“One of our shelters had been cleared out twice, with the demand so high for a feline friend,” spokesperson Suzana Talevski told 7NEWS.com.au.

Similarly, the animal management centre run by Queensland’s Mackay Regional Council saw numbers of stray pets “down to levels we hadn’t experienced before”.

“We still had them coming in, but at a far reduced rate”, the council’s Craig Shepherd said.

Veterinarian Renae Jackson, from the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home, believes the high number of adoptions was due to prospective owners having more time to settle in their pets, as opposed to when working full time.

But she said in the last week, the number of dogs coming into the shelter had doubled from recent periods.

“We’re thinking this is more to do with people going back to work, not being with their animals as much and the animals escaping,” she said.

“We’re not actually seeing people dumping animals that we know of, but we are certainly seeing a lot of extra stray dogs.”

Shepherd said Mackay had seen a “noticeable increase in dogs escaping people’s yards” since restrictions have eased.

“From the end of May through to now, we’ve seen those numbers come back up to what we would normally see,” he said.

“Just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve actually had periods where we’ve been near capacity at our centre.”

Jackson believes most people who adopted pets during the lockdown weren’t making “silly, impulse decisions”.

“I think the vast majority of people were sensible about it,” she said.

“I’m hoping most of those will stick.”

But Talevski likened the period to Christmas when pets are sometimes bought as gifts for people who can’t care for them.

“Being in isolation is not easy and for some, the loneliness has been hard to cope with so we understand how a pet may help to cope in these uncertain times,” she said.

“That is fine as long as you have the capabilities to care for that animal once life returns to normal.

“While we are certainly not discouraging adopting a pet we are definitely asking people to carefully consider their choices.”

Care recommendations

Jackson recommends people returning to work should ease their new pets into being alone.

“Rather than being home all the time and suddenly going back to work, and a poor dog’s surprised and devastated, just really gradually leaving them alone and building that up,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.

Shepherd urged people to have adequate fencing at their properties.