High Care Costs, Pandemic Period Policies, Increases Shelter Demand for Dogs

San Francisco Animal Care and Control (SFACC) is experiencing a deluge of dogs due in part to the high cost of veterinary care and the pause in neuter and spay operations early in the COVID-19 pandemic. A shortage of veterinary professionals and surrender of large breeds add to the pressures on the shelter. 

San Francisco Health Code Section 41.7(e) requires SFACC to hold the animals of owners who are facing a temporary crisis, such as a medical emergency or incarceration. SFACC must provide veterinary care for ‘custody animals’ while they’re in the shelter. The exception is if the owner consents to someone else, like a family member or partner, assuming responsibility for the creature. SFACC cannot allow a custody animal to be adopted; it already has an owner. 

“As of mid-April 2024, SFACC has about 70 dogs in its kennels, with approximately 40 percent – 28 – being custody dogs. We have three rooms full of custody dogs alone,” said Deb Campbell, SFACC spokesperson. “It’s just overwhelming for staff, to care for so many dogs at once. We’d like to find homes for all of the dogs that can be adopted, especially the German Shepherds, Huskies, and pit bulls.”  

This year SFACC’s budget was cut by five percent, less than the 10 percent imposed on other municipal agencies. 

“The high numbers of animals in need of shelter and adoption is a national issue,” said Campbell.

Roughly 6.5 million cats and dogs were given refuge nationally in 2023, according to Shelter Animals Count, an Atlanta, Georgia-based nonprofit, about 3.3 million cats, 3.2 million dogs. There was a 0.2 percent increase in the number of animals entering shelters from 2022, a four percent rise 2021. 

According to Campbell, Bay Area shelters are seeing a large influx of animals, particularly dogs. In 2023, SFACC accepted a substantial population of guinea pigs and rabbits. The agency coordinated with organizations like Marin Humane, a Novato-based shelter, to find homes for some of the small animals. 

Muttville, a senior dog rescue on Alabama Street that’s seeing higher demand than it did last year accepts some of SFACC’s older dogs. 

“On a normal week, before the COVID-19 pandemic, we used to receive an average of 125 requests for us to rescue a dog per week. Now we are close to 300 requests per week,” said Sherri Franklin, Muttville founder and director.

Muttville takes in dogs aged seven and older from as far north as Napa and Sonoma counties and as far south as the Central Valley. It also takes dogs from as far east as Tahoe and Truckee. 

“We know the situation is changing because we are seeing a wider variety of dogs being surrendered. We’ve also seen a lot of purebreds, including French bulldogs, German Shepherds, Huskies, and St. Bernards. It’s not just pit bulls and Chihuahuas anymore,” said Franklin. “In 2023, roughly 20 percent of our adoption questionnaires were San Francisco-based. The majority of questionnaires are Bay Area-based or Bay Area-adjacent. We had 3,227 submitted questionnaires last year.”  

In the last two years donations to Muttville have risen, particularly from the South Bay, enabling the shelter to increase its capacity. More than 60 percent of the dogs under the nonprofit’s care need dental surgery. There’s also steady demand for neuter and spay operations, mammary tumor removal, and eye enucleations. 

“We get a lot of dogs which have never been to a vet before. We even have a few older dogs that came in pregnant,” said Franklin.

Kiska Icard, division manager for the City of San José Animal Care Center, said his facility is also facing higher demands.  

“Right now, we have 240 dogs in our kennels and 190 dog kennels. People are being threatened with evictions for having pets. Very few landlords allow people to have large dogs. The majority of our dogs came to us as strays,” said Icard. 

Icard said the state’s housing shortage is driving up the population of dogs surrendered. 

“We have over 90 rescue partners in Santa Clara County and a very robust foster program. But as soon as we get a dog adopted, more dogs come through,” said Icard.

According to Ann Dunn, Oakland Animal Services director, the issue is serious in the East Bay.

“We are seeing 350 dogs a month come to our shelter. Most of these are large dogs. We only have 73 kennels for large dogs,” said Dunn.

Many of the dogs that enter OAS are owner surrenders, some associated with residents who lost housing. 

“When Oakland’s planning commission approved recently built apartment units, they required they be pet-friendly, but didn’t define the term.  Now, some landlords have breed restrictions or limit to “small dogs only.” Some require pet deposits or monthly pet rent, which can be cost prohibitive,” said Dunn. 

Lifting of municipal eviction moratoriums, combined with resolution of eviction backlog cases in local courts, is enabling landlords to execute on removals that were initiated last summer. Oakland’s eviction protections expired last July, San Francisco’s last August. 

Dunn said there’s considerable collaboration between city shelters and ‘transfer partners’ like Muttville. 

“Yet more work and more funding from the state is needed to bring down the number of animals in city shelters. It would help for voters to see that the number of animals entering the shelters is linked to an increase in homelessness and housing insecurity,” said Dunn.