As domestic COVID-19 infections decrease and vaccinations increase, people across the nation are hoping that life can soon return to normal.
However, that is not to be the case for those who adopted an animal for companionship while working from home and avoiding social gatherings.
Last month, the nation’s shelters reported a surge in adoptions, with the Taoyuan Animal Protection Office reporting 10 percent more adoptions than last year. The Taipei City Animal Protection Office reported being flooded with adoption requests immediately following the announcement of a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert on May 15. Last week, the office said that it has been so overwhelmed that people might have to wait until next month to take home a furry companion.
While people are to be lauded for choosing to adopt strays from a shelter instead of buying animals from a pet store, it is also worrisome, as the sudden rush suggests that many might be doing it out of impulse after becoming lonely due to all the time spent at home.
A Taipei Times article last week quoted a recent pet adopter as saying: “The presence of a pet for a white-collar worker living alone is a great boon and helps alleviate the sense of loneliness.” In another report, a psychologist noted the numerous physical and psychological benefits of pet companionship, and encouraged those experiencing depression and elderly people to adopt a pet.
While such rhetoric is founded on the best of intentions, it only portrays animal companions in light of the benefits they can offer humans, ignoring that proper care of animals and keeping them happy requires money, time and effort. What a human can offer an animal should at least equal the benefits received. While this is common sense, the prevalence of pet abandonment requires it to be emphasized every time the issue is brought up.
Adoption should be encouraged and many of these animals end up in loving, committed homes, but pet adoption should by no means be touted as a solution for weathering the seclusion of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Getting a pet during the outbreak might give the false impression that caring for an animal is easy, as the human is stuck at home, with plenty of time to tend to the pet’s needs and play with the animal. However, what happens when the level 3 alert is lifted and people are once again caught up in their careers and social lives?
It is even more concerning given what has happened in other countries that have been through lockdowns and opened back up — countries that generally have better track records regarding pet ownership than Taiwan.
The UK, the US and Japan all saw a significant spike in adoption rates last year, but once their societies reopened, countless animals were sent back to shelters, giving rise to the phrase “pandemic pet.” Last year, Britain’s largest dog welfare charity, Dogs Trust, changed its slogan from: “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas,” to: “A dog is for life, not just for lockdown.”
One can only hope that those who have become pet owners during this outbreak will show themselves to be responsible and honor the bond they have formed — Taiwan does not need “pandemic pets” to become a local trend.
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