To expand on this, I foster for a county shelter. A rich county's shelter but a county shelter nonetheless with open intake and thankfully the money and foster network to not need to euthanize for space. https://twitter.com/rmccarthyjames/status/1390345166507159553

The overwhelming reason people surrender animals is either they can't be kept in their current or future housing, or they can't afford to feed and care for them. We're in an era of overwhelming housing issues and landlords looking to evict to sell or jack up rents.

Right now there is a covid related eviction moratorium I think thru end of June, unless that got over turned? I don't even know if that was nationally applicable. Houses are being snapped up by people looking to WFH in the country while I'm sure keeping their city homes to rent

So if you're trying to find a place to rent, you're going to be facing spiking rent and diving availability. And have you ever tried to rent with a pet, ESPECIALLY a dog? Pet deposits on top of security, pet rent on top, breed restrictions, weight restrictions.

The last time my husband rented from a corporate place like 15 years ago, the breed restriction list was like 50 breeds long. And if your building manager decides your dog is one of the breeds? You don't usually have a lot of recourse besides giving the dog up or moving

And we just discussed how tricky renting is getting. If you're trying to get a place with roommates? Not only do you have to find a place that allows pets but you have to hope no one has allergies.

Next, we've got the issue of being able to afford care. Vet care is fucking expensive, especially in generally expensive areas. My fucking idiot Meatball of two major surgeries and one attempted mushroom poisoning has cost me probably $15K in the last couple years.

I'm double high income, no kids so I can afford it without blinking. Someone who isn't? Has kids of their own, or making minimum wage, or has fucking medical bills of their own? Well, the shelter I foster for will take sick animals. Sometimes they fix 'em up. Sometimes they kill.

(Meatball was a dog they fixed up, for all that the surgery their vet performed didn't work and I had to pay for a new one, but that's a whole separate issue. Again, if I had been an adopter of lesser means? I couldn't have forked over $5K to redo it. He prob would have returned)

And if you can't feed yourself and your family, the easiest place to cut costs is the pets. The shelter I work with saw a noticeable drop in surrenders when they opened up a pet food pantry.

(are you giving to your local human and pet food pantries if you can?)

Programs that provide food and low cost vet care go a long way with keeping pets with their families.

Finally, returns aren't bad! An animal in a caring environment that's looking to find a new home is better than dumped on the street or someone's barn. If the surrenderer can provide information about the dog's history and behavior, it's SO much easier to match them with a home!

Sometimes adoptions just don't work out and a) any time the dog spends out of the shelter is good for their health since shelters, while being decent places, can still be loud and overwhelming. A break is good! b) see previous tweet about knowing how a dog is in a home.

With my late dog Greta, we knew she had issues with other dogs. We had no idea that her prey drive was super high. Not being a cat household, it wasn't a problem but for another family it very well could have been.

I've fostered a decent number of dogs. I've foster failed once. Not all adoptions are meant to be and honestly, it's a good thing for everyone involved to not be miserable.

So if you're going to go around judging people for returning a pet without knowing their circumstances or lives, you're the asshole.